BV  4211  .S65 

Smyth,  J.  Paterson  1852- 

1932. 
The  preacher  and  his  sermo 


^^5S4^*-^/t 


THE  PREACHER 
AND  HIS  SERMON 

REV,  J.  PATERSON  SMYTH 


By  Rev.  J.  PATERSON  SMYTH, 

B.D.,    LL.D.,    LITT.D.,    D.C.L. 


THE  BIBLE  FOR  SCHOOL  AND  HOME 

5   Volumes 

A  SYRIAN  LOVE  STORY 

THE  GOSPEL  OF  THE  HEREAFTER 

75th  Thousand 

A  PEOPLE'S  LIFE  OF  CHRIST 

6tk  Edition 

ON  THE   RIM   OF   THE   WORLD 

HOW  WE  GOT  OUR  BIBLE 

i6oth  Thousand 

THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  MAKING 
2nd  Edition 

THE   ANCIENT   DOCUMENTS  AND  THE  MODERN 
BIBLE— ILLUSTRATED 

9th  Edition 

HOW  GOD  INSPIRED  THE  BIBLE 

4th  Edition 

STORY  OF  ST.  PAUL'S  LIFE  AND  LETTERS 

2nd  Edition 


THE    PREACHER 
AND     HIS    SERMO^,oFP«,,^, 

BY  I      JAN  ^7  1933 

LATE    PROFESSOR    OF    PASTORAL    THEOLOGY,    UNIVERSITY    OF    DUBLIN 

Author  of  "A  People's  Life  of  Christ."  "Story  of  St.  Paul's 

Life  and  Letters"  "The  Gospel  of  the  Hereafter," 

"The  Bible  in  the  Making"  etc. 


NEW  XaJr  YORK 
GEORGE  H.  DORAN  COMPANY 


COPYRIGHT,    1922, 
BY  GEORGE   H.  DORAN   COMPANY 


THE  PREACHER  AND  HIS  SERMON,     I 
PRINTED  IN  THE   UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA 


Addressed  to  Divinity  Students  and  Junior 
Clergy  in  the  University  of  Trinity  College, 
Dublin,  and  later  in  Trinity  University, 
Toronto. 


CONTENTS 

lECTURE  PACB 

I     The  Preacher ii 

II     The  Preacher:  His  First  Five  Years       .  31 

III  Placere 59 

IV  The  Quality  of  "Grip" 71 

V    Preparing   the   Sermon 97 

VI     Preaching  the  Sermon 123 


Lecture  I 
THE  PREACHER 


Lecture  I 
THE  PREACHER 

§1 

The  subject  to  be  dealt  with  is  "The  Preacher 
and  his  Sermon."  I  want  to  do  all  that  in  me 
lies  to  help  you  to  be  good  preachers  and  to 
preach  good  sermons.  It  is  a  comfort  to  think 
that  this  does  not  necessitate  that  I  should  be 
a  good  preacher  myself  and  preach  good  ser- 
mons. It  only  needs  that  I  should  be  trying 
hard  to  be  and  do  such  in  so  far  as  my  own 
personal  limitations  permit.  Some  of  us  can 
never  be  what  would  be  considered  very  good 
preachers.  But  any  poor  struggler  after  ex- 
cellence who  for  more  than  twenty  years  has 
himself  been  honestly  trying  hard  to  learn  how 
to  preach  should  be  able  to  help  you  to  preach. 
He  can  tell  you  of  the  faults  that  have  been 
spoiling  his  own  preaching,  and  of  his  efforts  to 
discover  and  correct  them ;  of  the  methods  that 
he  has  tried  and  found  wanting  or  found  use- 

II 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon 

ful;  of  the  things  that  have  helped  him  and 
hindered  him.  He  can  tell  you  all  that  he  has 
gathered  from  other  men's  experience.  Above 
all,  he  can  tell  you,  for  your  encouragement,  of 
his  continually  growing  interest  and  enthusi- 
asm in  his  preaching,  that  makes  him  able  to- 
day to  say  to  you  in  all  sincerity  that  he  would 
not  change  his  office  for  that  of  a  king.  There- 
fore, you  must  not  think  it  at  all  presumption 
that  a  man  who  is  very  much  dissatisfied  with 
his  own  preaching  should  venture  to  occupy 
this  chair  and  teach  you  how  to  preach. 

I  ask  your  careful  attention  to  the  title  of 
these  addresses,  *'The  Preacher  and  His  Ser- 
mon." The  preacher  first — the  man  first.  That 
is  a  thought  which  I  desire  to  impress  deeply 
upon  you,  that  in  the  ministerial  life  it  is  not  so 
much  the  doing  of  the  duties  that  is  important 
as  the  kind  of  man  who  is  doing  the  duties ;  it 
is  not  so  much  the  sort  of  sermon  that  is 
preached  as  the  sort  of  man  that  is  behind  the 
sermon.  I  think  that  was  the  thought  in  St 
Paul's  mind  when  advising  the  young  minister 
Timothy,  ''Take  heed  to  thyself  and  to  thy 
teaching" — thyself  first. 

Looking  back  on  my  experience  of  men  I  see 
more  and  more  the  need  of  emphasising  this, 

12 


The  Preacher 

that  the  personality  of  the  preacher  is  of  su- 
preme importance.  Preaching  has  been  well 
defined  as  the  communication  of  truth  by  man 
to  men,  i.e.,  the  bringing  of  truth  to  men 
through  a  human  personality.^  So  you  see 
there  are  the  two  elements,  the  truth  of  God 
and  the  personality  of  the  preacher.  Both 
count.  The  personality  of  the  most  sympa- 
thetic preacher  will  not  help  men  much  unless 
it  has  the  truth  of  God  behind  it;  but,  on  the 
other  hand,  it  would  seem  that  the  truth  of  God 
to  be  fully  effective  needs  to  be  brought  to  men 
through  the  heart  of  a  sympathetic  man.  This 
latter  is  what  most  needs  emphasising  for  you 
young  men.  You  realise  at  once  that  the  truth 
matters  much.  It  is  not  so  easy  to  realise  that 
you  yourself  matter  much,  yet  that  is  what  you 
must  realise  if  ever  you  are  to  be  a  true 
preacher.  I  do  believe  that  what  God  is  espe- 
cially seeking  for  the  ministry  to-day,  is  men 
who  are  capable  of  being  vehicles  of  His  truth 
to  humanity;  men  who  are  open  on  the  God- 
ward  side  to  receive  divine  impressions,  to  feel 
divine  cravings,  to  thrill  with  divine  enthusi- 
asm, and  who  are  open  on  the  manward  side 
to  have  that  sympathy  and  touch  with  their 

^  Phillips  Brooks. 
13 


Tlie  Preacher  and  His  Sermon 

poor  struggling  brethren  which  make  the  truth 
which  passes  through  them  electric  and  attrac- 
tive. It  is  only  in  proportion  as  a  man  is  thus 
qualified  that  he  can  ever  become  in  any  real 
sense  a  preacher  of  righteousness;  a  prophet 
of  the  Lord  God.  There  will  be  fifty  preachers 
in  our  city  pulpits  next  Sunday,  preaching  in 
the  main  the  same  truths,  and  yet  with  such  a 
difference.  One  will  emphasise  a  side  of  truth 
that  does  not  occur  at  all  to  another;  one  will 
put  a  thing  dully  and  uninterestingly,  another 
will  make  it  so  vivid  that  he  will  force  you  to 
see  it ;  one  will  preach  a  sermon  as  clear  as  crys- 
tal, but  as  cold,  too — you  will  feel  that  the  truth 
he  is  teaching  has  never  touched  his  heart ;  an- 
other will  carry  you  with  him  in  spite  of  your- 
self, and  will  thrill  you  with  the  deep  feeling 
that  his  subject  has  roused  in  himself.  The 
difference  is  in  the  personality  of  the  men: 
partly  the  difference  of  natural  manner  and 
temperament  which  makes  one  personality  more 
attractive  than  another ;  chiefly  the  difference  of 
depth  of  character  and  devotional  life,  which 
makes  one  man  so  much  more  sensitive  than 
another  to  the  divine  influences  above  him  and 
to  the  human  influences  around  him. 

I  think  I  shall  the  better  help  you  to  feel  the 
14 


The  Preacher 

importance  of  the  personal  element  if  I  remind 
you  of  the  way  in  which  God  inspired  the  Bible. 
He  might  have  spoken  His  revelation  daily 
direct  from  Heaven;  or  written  it  across  the 
sky,  or  branded  it  for  ever  on  the  everlasting 
hills;  there  it  would  be  permanently  before 
men,  and  with  the  great  advantage  of  being 
God's  direct  infallible  word,  not  passed  through 
any  distorting  or  fallible  medium.  But  God 
did  not  do  that,  surely  because  that  was  not  the 
best  way  to  influence  men.  Instead  of  giving  a 
ready-made  revelation  sent  down  from  Heaven 
He  passed  His  truth  through  human  hearts 
and  minds,  He  inspired  poor  stupid  fallible  hu- 
man beings  who  could  easily  make  mistakes; 
who  could  but  imperfectly  grasp  His  teaching. 
He  inspired  them  with  noble  thoughts  and  high 
enthusiasms,  and  restless  cravings  and  longings 
after  Himself;  He  kept  their  souls  open  and 
receptive,  that  His  teaching  might  be  received 
by  them;  He  kept  them  in  sympathetic  touch 
with  their  brethren  that  they  might  be  the  fitter 
to  communicate  to  them  His  comfort  and  help. 
They  were  on  the  one  side  receiving  from  God, 
they  were  on  the  other  communicating  to  men ; 
they  imparted  to  men  their  hopes  and  enthusi- 
asms and  the  knowledge  that  God  had  con- 

15 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon 

veyed  to  their  souls.  They  did  it,  doubtless^ 
very  imperfectly,  and  yet  they  did  it  humanly, 
and  so  they  were  able  to  influence  humanity 
around  them.  It  would  seem  that  in  God's 
sight  it  was  worth  risking  some  error  and  im- 
perfection that  His  truth  might  come  to  men 
warm  from  human  hearts  like  their  own.  And 
it  would  seem  that  different  types  of  men  were 
needed  to  present  different  sides  of  truth.  God 
used  the  men  best  fitted  for  each  country  and 
each  age.  He  inspired  various  characters  and 
temperaments.  He  chose  men  of  different 
tones  of  thought  to  present  the  different  aspects 
of  His  many-sided  truths,  and  thus  to  correct 
and  supplement  each  other.  So,  too,  that  Di- 
vine Spirit  touched  men  at  various  crises  in 
their  lives,  surely  in  order  that  the  various 
notes  might  be  struck  in  the  harmony  of  God's 
revelation.  He  came  to  them  in  joy,  in  sorrow, 
in  doubt,  in  despair,  in  the  glad  confidence  of 
faith,  in  the  fierce  struggle  with  temptation. 
Through  the  human  spirit  in  its  various  states. 
He  spake  to  the  universal  human  spirit  as  it 
could  never  have  been  spoken  to  otherwise.  He 
spake  through  the  passionate  indignation  of 
Isaiah,  and  the  sorrowful  plaints  of  Jeremiah, 
over  the  wickedness  of  his  race.    He  touched. 

i6 


The  Preacher 

the  hearts  of  the  ancient  Psalmists  in  their  va- 
rious Hfe  crises,  and  we  hear  their  struggle 
with  their  sorrow  and  their  sin,  and  their  child- 
like crying  after  the  living  God.  He  inspired 
the  stern  pathos  of  Hosea,  sorrowing  over  the 
greatest  trouble  that  could  come  to  man,  a  wife 
unfaithful  to  her  marriage  vow,  and  by  means 
of  his  sorrow  and  his  changeless  love,  learning 
Jehovah's  feelings  towards  His  unfaithful  peo- 
ple. 

That  is  how  God  inspired  and  trained  the 
writers  of  the  Bible,  and  that  is  hozv  He  will 
inspire  and  train  each  one  of  you  who  is  fit  for 
His  high  office,  fit  to  be  a  prophet  of  the  Lord 
Jehovah.  Do  not  take  this  as  unreal  talk.  God 
is  really  training  His  preachers  to-day  as  He 
trained  them  in  ancient  days.  Some  of  us  older 
men  know  in  our  own  keen  experience  that  it 
is  so.  My  young  brothers,  as  I  look  into  your 
faces  to-day  and  think  how  God  is  going  to 
train  you  for  your  future  ministry,  it  is  to  me 
very  pathetic.  I  look  back  to  my  own  student 
days  and  think  of  the  experience  through  which 
God  has  since  been  training  me.  I  think  of  the 
dear  loving  old  rector,  who  helped  me  by  his 
faith  in  God,  and  the  kindly  blunt  people  in 
my  first  parish  from  whom  I  learned  so  much. 

17 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon 

I  think  of  the  deep  happiness  of  my  home,  and 
the  Httle  children  cHng-ing  to  me  to  teach  me 
what  is  the  great  central  truth  of  my  life,  the 
deep  tenderness  of  God's  fatherhood.  I  think 
of  many  months  of  illness  and  pain,  to  teach  me 
sympathy  with  the  suffering.  I  think  of  one 
very  dear  to  me  passing  suddenly  into  the  Un- 
seen, and  forcing  my  heart  after  him  to  grope 
at  the  doors  of  that  Wondrous  Life,  where  he 
had  gone  in.  I  think  of  many  such  things  in 
God's  training  of  myself,  and  as  I  ask  my 
brother  clergy  I  find  similar  things  true  of 
them.  And,  therefore,  I  say  to  you,  it  is  very 
pathetic,  but  it  is  absolutely  true  that  God  will 
train  every  man  of  you  who  is  worth  the  train- 
ing as  He  trained  the  inspired  teachers  of  old. 
My  young  brethren,  if  this  that  I  say  to  you 
be  true — and  you  know  in  your  hearts  that  it 
is,  even  if  you  have  never  thought  about  it  be- 
fore— if  it  be  true,  I  say,  should  it  not  bring  a 
deep  solemnity  into  our  thoughts  about  preach- 
ing ?  Surely  it  must  make  you  feel  that  to  be  a 
true  preacher  means  much  more  than  to  learn 
tricks  of  manner  and  gesture,  and  rules  about 
the  logical  composition  of  sermons — that  all 
the  teaching  of  the  Divinity  School,  and  all  the 
gathered  experience  of  other  men  can  contrib- 
'       i8 


The  Preacher 

ute  but  a  small  element  to  the  making  of  a 
preacher.  That  to  make  a  true  real  preacher 
requires  first  of  all,  as  a  foundation,  to  make  a 
true  real  man. 

§2 

If  I  am  right  in  all  this  that  I  have  said  about 
the  importance  of  yourself ^  of  the  personal  ele- 
ment in  you  as  a  preacher,  two  things  would 
seem  to  follow — 

(i)  That  you  must  always  try  only  to  be 
yourself,  your  own  natural  self. 

(2)  That  you  must  try  to  be  your  very  best 
self,  the  very  best  self  that  you  are  capable  of 
being. 

1st.  That  you  must  be  your  own  self,  not  try 
to  be  an  imitator  of  somebody  else.  You  will 
sometimes  be  tempted,  when  you  see  or  read  the 
work  of  stronger  and  better  and  abler  men  than 
yourself,  to  think  that  if  you  could  preach  as 
they  preach,  or  put  things  in  their  way,  or  imi- 
tate in  some  degree  their  manners  or  gesture, 
you  would  gain  in  efficiency.  I  do  not  think  so 
at  all.  You  had  much  better  try  to  remain  al- 
ways your  own  natural  self,  to  live  the  special 
life  which  God  has  marked  out  for  you,  and 
which  He  has  indicated  by  the  special  powers 

19 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon 

and  the  special  temperament  and  characteris- 
tics which  you  find  in  yourself.  It  is  a  mys- 
terious thing  this  personality  of  ours.  God 
has  sent  us  into  the  world  each  with  his  own 
distinct  personality,  as  with  his  own  distinct 
features  or  handwriting.  We  have  each  his 
own  individual  temperament  and  capacities  and 
talents  and  sympathies,  each  his  own  way  of 
thinking  and  looking  at  things.  My  way  of 
looking  at  or  putting  a  truth  is  not  exactly  your 
way;  your  way  is  not  exactly  that  of  the  man 
beside  you  on  these  benches.  As  God  has  given 
to  every  seed  his  own  body,  to  every  flower  his 
own  form,  so  has  He  laid  down  to  every  human 
being  an  order  according  to  which  it  is  natural 
that  he  should  develop,  and  it  is  in  his  develop- 
ing according  to  this  order  that  he  can  best  dis- 
charge his  duty  and  deliver  a  true  message  to 
men.  I  think  it  was  of  special  purpose  that 
God  chose  all  the  different  personalities  of  the 
men  who  should  be  inspired  to  give  His  revela- 
tion to  the  world ;  and  I  think  it  is  of  set  pur- 
pose that  God  calls  you  with  your  different 
personalities.  You  will  each  do  best  as  you  are, 
not  as  a  copy  of  some  one  else.  Your  indi- 
viduality is  a  sacred  thing  and  comes  into  God's 
plan  for  you;  therefore,  emphatically  I  repeat, 

20 


The  Preacher 

"Be  yourself."  Never  try  to  imitate  greater 
men  than  yourself,  except  in  this  one  thing,  try- 
ing to  be  as  true  and  noble  and  self-forgetting 
and  devoted  to  God  as  you  believe  they  are. 

Be  yourself !  your  natural  self !  That  is  the 
way  to  become  original  preachers  in  the  true, 
right  sense  of  the  word.  There  is  a  great  de- 
sire with  young  preachers  in  the  beginning  of 
their  ministry  to  be  original;  they  hate  to  be 
considered  as  preaching  commonplace  truths, 
or  saying  things  just  in  the  same  way  as  every- 
body else.  They  like  to  be  thought  in  some  way 
original,  out  of  the  common,  expressing 
thoughts  peculiar  to  themselves.  Sometimes  it 
leads  to  their  being  silly  and  ridiculous.  But  it 
need  not,  and  it  ought  not.  The  truth  that 
comes  out  of  your  own  inner  self  as  part  of 
yourself  should  be  for  that  reason  in  some  sense 
original  and  peculiar  to  you.  If  you  want  to  be 
an  original  preacher,  let  the  truth  you  teach  be 
so  assimilated  that  it  has  become  part  of  your- 
self. Look  at  Heaven  and  hell  and  sin  and  holi- 
ness with  your  own  eyes,  listen  for  yourself  to 
the  voice  of  God,  ask  God  to  reveal  to  you  His 
love.  His  generosity,  the  beauty  of  His  charac- 
ter, and  then  tell  men  these  things  just  as  they 
appear  to  you.  Get  down  to  the  heart  of  things, 

21 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon 

get  below  the  surface  down  to  the  facts  which 
lie  behind  all  appearances,  and  talk  to  men 
naturally  of  them  as  they  appear  to  yourself. 
That  will  lead  to  an  originality  which  will  last 
all  your  life.  Men  will  be  attracted  by  the  per- 
sonal note  which  unconsciously  runs  through 
your  teaching.  The  thoughts  will  seem  the 
stronger  because  you  have  thought  them  your- 
self, the  feeling  will  be  more  vivid  because  you 
have  felt  it  yourself,  and  they  will  know  that 
you  are  a  real  man  speaking  to  them,  trying  to 
lead  them  to  God  by  a  way  along  which  you 
have  gone  yourself.  Yourself.  Yourself. 
Give  them  yourself.  Keep  yourself  very  unob- 
trusive. Except  on  the  very  rarest  occasions, 
never  talk  of  yourself.  But  underneath  all  the 
shyness  and  modesty  and  unobtrusiveness,  let 
the  personal  note  ring  through  all  you  say.  Let 
men  feel  that  it  is  your  thought,  your  feeling, 
your  hope,  your  craving,  your  enthusiasm. 
There  is  a  marvellous  attractiveness  for  men  in 
that. 

§3 

But  this  does  not  mean  that  you  are  to  be  the 
crude  unfinished  imperfect  self  that  you  are 
now.    No!    Be  yourself,  but  be  your  best  self. 

22 


The  Preacher 

Be  the  fullest,  noblest  self  that  it  is  possible  for 
you  to  be.  You  must  develop  on  the  natural 
lines  that  God  has  laid  down  for  you.  But  see 
to  it  that  you  do  develop.  You  have  to  develop 
on  many  sides. 

( 1st.)  I  have  pointed  out  to  you  that  to  be  a 
true  preacher  it  is  necessary  to  keep  your  soul 
open,  facing  God,  receiving  continually  from 
God  high  impulses,  desires,  enthusiasms  that 
you  are  to  communicate  to  men. 

Need  I  repeat  to  you  that  that  is  the  supreme 
element  in  a  successful  preacher:  successful  I 
mean  in  drawing  men  towards  God.  As  you 
think  on  all  the  ministries  that  you  know,  and 
search  out  what  distinguishes  the  successful 
from  the  unsuccessful  preacher,  you  know  right 
well  that  you  have  to  go  deeper  than  eloquence 
and  cleverness  and  attractiveness  of  style,  and 
such  external  things.  You  will  see  men  who 
are  very  eloquent  and  very  scholarly,  and  very 
well  equipped  with  advantages  of  voice  and 
manner,  yet  somehow  they  do  not  impress  you 
or  rouse  you  to  any  enthusiasm  for  righteous- 
ness. And  some  day  you  come  upon  a  man  who 
seems  deficient  in  most  of  these  things,  a  poor, 
awkward,  shy  man,  lacking  in  method,  lacking 
in  manner,  lacking  in  eloquence  and  cleverness 

23 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon 

and  literary  style,  and  yet  you  will  find  the 
doubter,  and  the  tempted,  and  the  struggling 
instinctively  turn  to  him  for  help.  Why  ?  Not 
because  he  has  been  well  taught  in  the  Divinity 
School  the  external  duties  of  his  office.  No; 
but  because  he  is  a  real  man,  really  praying, 
really  struggling,  really  trying  to  live  in  com- 
munion with  God. 

And  then  I  pointed  out  to  you  the  correla- 
tive of  this,  the  need  of  keen  sympathy  with 
your  fellows.  You  have  that  also  in  some  de- 
gree already,  else  you  would  not  be  longing  to 
help  them  and  lift  them  upward.  But  it  will 
greatly  develop  in  your  ministry  if  you  are  a 
true  kindly  man.  You  must  get  to  know  your 
people  intimately,  their  struggles  and  wants 
and  sorrows ;  their  hopes  and  interests  and  de- 
sires and  cares.  It  is  in  knowing  and  sympa- 
thising deeply  with  those,  and  feeling  deeply,  at 
the  same  time,  that  there  is  true  comfort  for 
their  sorrows,  and  true  satisfaction  for  their 
cravings  in  the  following  of  Christ,  and  only 
there — it  is  in  this  lies  the  secret  of  your  suc- 
cess as  a  preacher. 

(2nd.)  These  are  the  supreme  things,  the 
foundation  things.  But  there  is  much  more. 
When  God  is  sending  you  on  so  grand  and 

24 


The  Preacher 

solemn  a  mission  you  must  see  to  it  that  you  fit 
yourself  on  all  sides.  You  must  see  that  your 
voice  and  your  manner  of  speaking  are  the 
best  that  they  can  be  made.  You  have  oppor- 
tunities now  that  our  generation  had  not.  I 
cannot  understand  any  man  realising  the  great- 
ness of  his  office  as  a  preacher  and  yet  going  on 
with  an  unpleasant  or  untrained  voice,  and  a 
trick  of  dropping  the  ends  of  his  sentences,  or 
any  other  defect  that  is  hindering  his  effective- 
ness. I  want  you  not  to  take  for  granted  that 
you  are  all  right,  that  you  can  read  well  and 
speak  well.  I  went  on  for  years  without  dis- 
covering the  defects  of  my  utterance,  and  I 
am  hearing  on  every  side  the  complaints  of  the 
lay  people  that  we  clergy,  and  the  younger 
clergy  especially,  read  so  badly  and  preach  so 
fast  that  they  cannot  easily  follow  them.  I 
have  still  to  keep  church-wardens  and  parish- 
ioners listening  in  awkward  corners  to  tell  me 
when  I  drop  my  voice  or  when  I  speak  too  fast. 
I  should  strongly  advise  you  to  do  the  same. 

And  you  must  read  hard.  In  these  days, 
when  every  one  reads,  you  will  have  to  read 
more  strenuously  and  widely  and  deeply  than 
the  laity  whom  you  are  to  lead.  A  narrow  man, 
an  uncultured  man,  a  man  who  has  not  learned 

25 


The  Preacher  arid  His  Sermon 

to  think  hard,  will  be  at  a  great  disadvantage. 
He  cannot  be  a  leader.  And  no  matter  what 
people  say  of  the  impossibility  of  our  still  being 
leaders  of  thought  in  these  days  of  widespread 
culture,  yet  leaders  of  thought  we  must  all  aim 
to  be.  And  leaders  of  thought  in  our  own  spe- 
cial direction  we  all  of  us  can  be.  But  we 
must  work  hard  for  it. 

That  is  all  I  have  to  say  to  you  to-day.  Your- 
self is  a  supremely  important  element  in  your 
preaching.  Therefore  aim  to  be  your  real  self, 
and  not  an  imitation.  Therefore  also  aim  to 
be  your  best  self — spiritually,  intellectually, 
physically — every  way.  Make  up  your  mind 
that  if  you  are  an  uninteresting  preacher,  if 
people  don't  care  to  listen  to  you,  it  is  most 
probably  your  own  fault.  Try  to  find  out  if 
people  are  listening  to  you ;  if  you  are  interest- 
ing them,  if  you  are  helping  them.  If  not,  try 
to  find  out  the  reason  and  remedy  it.  Never 
give  up  trying.  Never  give  up  improving. 
And  above  all,  never  give  up  hoping  and  re- 
joicing and  being  enthusiastic  about  your 
preaching.  Do  not  lose  heart  because  the  ideal 
set  before  you  is  high.  You  have  all  your  life 
to  attain  to  it.  You  have  all  the  strength  and 
help  of  God  to  enable  you  to  do  it.   And  when 

26 


The  Preacher 

you  have  done  your  best,  for  God's  sake,  not  for 
your  own,  if  you  never  become  a  great  or  in- 
teresting or  attractive  preacher,  you  have  the 
comfort  that  no  true  man  is  ever  a  failure  in 
the  sight  of  God.  When  the  great  householder 
in  the  parable  called  his  servants  to  their  ac- 
count and  their  award,  when  one  had  gained 
two  talents  and  another  had  gained  five.  His 
warm,  glad,  hearty,  "Well  done,"  rings  out  for 
them  both;  the  warm,  hearty  appreciation  of 
the  Master  who  loved  to  praise  and  hated  to 
blame,  who  hoped  they  would  succeed  and  was 
glad  that  they  should  succeed.  And  He  does 
not  say,  "Well  done,  good  and  successful  serv- 
ant," or  good  and  popular  servant — that  is  not 
always  in  a  man's  power  to  attain.  But  "Well 
done,  good  and  faithful  servant" — faithful  in 
God's  sight,  though  perhaps  a  failure  in  man's 
— "enter  thou  into  the  joy  of  thy  Lord." 


27 


Lecture  II 

THE  PREACHER:   HIS   FIRST  FIVE 
YEARS 


Lecture  II 

THE  PREACHER :  HIS  FIRST  FIVE  YEARS 

Our  subject  to-day  is,  ''The  Preacher:  His 
First  Five  Years."  I  want  to  say  to  you  first  of 
all,  "Resolve  at  the  very  beginning  that  all  your 
life  you  will  try  to  put  your  very  best  into  your 
Sunday  Sermon,  that  if  something  has  to  give 
way  in  the  rush  of  your  work,  it  certainly  shall 
not  be  the  Sunday  Sermon."  One  hears  silly 
talk  nowadays  amongst  young  clergy  that  the 
sermon  has  lost  its  power,  because  the  laity  are 
reading  so  much  more  widely.  Don't  you  be- 
lieve it,  young  men.  It  will  be  a  fatal  thing 
for  the  power  of  the  Church  if  ever  the  younger 
clergy  begin  to  think  that  the  sermon  need  not 
be  taken  too  seriously.  The  average  listener 
does  not  want  to  be  careless  and  uninterested. 
The  average  listener,  in  spite  of  all  appearances 
to  the  contrary,  longs  to  be  made  to  listen,  and 
will  listen  to  you  eagerly,  attentively,  delight- 
edly, if  you  are  a  real  man,  preaching  from 
your  heart  real  truths.     The  true  "Speaking 

31 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon 

Man,"  as  Carlyle  calls  him,  can  never  be  super- 
seded nor  out  of  date.  "The  Speaking  Man," 
he  says,  "has,  indeed,  in  these  days  wandered 
terribly  from  the  point,  yet  at  bottom  whom 
have  we  to  compare  with  him?  Of  all  public 
functionaries  boarded  and  lodged  on  the  indus- 
try of  modern  Europe,  is  there  one  worthier  of 
his  board  than  he?  If  he  could  only  not  wan- 
der from  the  point !  If  he  could  only  find  the 
point  again!"  Carlyle  was  right.  There  is  a 
power  and  attraction  in  the  living  voice  of  the 
true  preacher,  which  never  can  be  superseded 
by  any  increase  of  knowledge.  In  God's  name, 
therefore,  work  hard,  pray  hard,  do  your  best 
to  become  true  preachers. 

Now  for  the  first  five  years,  the  most  critical 
years  of  your  ministry.  I  am  thinking  of  my 
own  first  five  years,  with  shame  and  regret,  and 
wish  that  some  older  clerical  friend  had  ad- 
vised me  what  to  preach  and  what  not  to  preach 
in  the  beginning.  I  had  no  idea  about  it,  no 
plan.  I  never  knew  any  month  what  I  might 
be  likely  to  preach  before  the  month  was  over. 
It  was  all  chance.  I  began  well  enough.  I  be- 
gan by  preaching  much  about  the  love  of  God. 
After  a  few  months  of  sick  visiting  and  death- 
beds in  a  large  artisan  parish,  it  seemed  to  me 

32 


The  Preacher:   His  First  Five  Years 

that  the  people  were  assuming  the  love  of  God 
a  great  deal  too  much  already,  and  that  their 
careless  deathbeds  arose  a  good  deal  from  the 
vague  notion  that  God  was  so  kind  and  good- 
natured  that  life  and  character  did  not  matter 
much,  that  a  man  need  only  learn  to  say  on  his 
deathbed,  "God  be  merciful  to  me  a  sinner."  So 
I  changed  my  tone  and  began  to  frighten  them 
about  character-making  and  probation  and  eter- 
nal justice,  as  if  the  Father  were  like  a  great 
police  magistrate.  It  was  a  pity — it  was  stu- 
pidly done,  and  badly  and  falsely.  After  the 
first  year  I  worked  myself  into  a  great  state 
against  Calvinistic  teaching,  which  still  existed 
in  that  district.  It  seemed  to  me  a  brave  and 
knightly  thing,  to  do  battle  with  what  seemed  a 
blasphemous  travesty  of  God.  It  really  was  not 
at  all  brave  and  knightly,  for  Calvinism  was 
fast  dying  out,  and  it  was  easy  to  throw  stones 
at  a  dying  Creed.  But  mine  was  a  stage  of 
thought  very  common  to  all  young  clergy  who 
feel  strongly  and  enthusiastically  about  things, 
and  feel  also  a  little  bit  conceited  as  to  their 
mission  to  set  things  right.  At  that  stage  we 
greatly  enjoy  criticising  with  excessive  severity 
the  errors  of  the  traditional  theology.  We 
generally  exaggerate  them  a  good  deal  and 

33 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon 

criticise  them  unfairly.  We  generally  irritate 
some  of  the  elder  clergy  and  puzzle  some  of  the 
elder  laity  with  our  crude  passionate  assaults. 
But  we  thoroughly  enjoy  it,  and  generally  we 
do  it  well  and  interestingly  because  we  feel  it 
strongly.  I  shall  tell  you  afterwards  what  I 
think  of  the  value  of  such  preaching.  Then 
came  a  stage  when  I  thought  I  had  preached  on 
everything  under  the  sun  that  was  worth 
preaching  about,  and  I  remember  how  the  dear 
old  rector  laughed  when  I  told  him,  before  I 
had  been  very  long  ordained,  that  I  did  not 
know  of  anything  else  now  to  preach  about.  I 
fear  the  same  thing  goes  on  still,  and  that  your 
experience  will  be  much  the  same  as  mine  if  I 
cannot  suggest  anything  to  help  you. 

§1 

I  think  in  the  very  beginning  of  your  preach- 
ing you  had  best  be  let  alone  to  express  the 
thoughts  that  have  been  most  stirring  in  you 
during  the  years  before.  Whatever  you  feel 
strongly  about,  whatever  has  been  prominent 
in  your  own  mind,  begin  with  that,  read  up 
about  it,  broaden  your  knowledge  of  it,  tell  it 
as  earnestly  as  you  can.     It  may  not  be  very 

34 


The  Preacher:   His  First  Five  Years 

valuable,  but  it  is,  for  the  time,  the  best  you 
have  to  say,  and  what  you  are  likely  to  say  best 
since  you  feel  it  strongly.  Besides,  it  will  do 
you  good  to  clear  and  crystallise  thoughts  that 
have  been  a  bit  vague  and  in  solution,  as  it 
were,  for  years  before.  Say,  therefore,  at  first, 
what  you  feel  most  strongly  impelled  to  say. 

Only — and  let  this  word  sink  down  into  your 
hearts — be  modest,  modest,  very  modest;  es- 
pecially in  your  earlier  sermons  I  beseech  you 
to  be  modest.  I  have  been  hearing  the  lay  com- 
micnts  on  young  clergy  at  the  beginning  of  their 
ministry,  till  the  thought  has  stamped  itself  on 
me,  that  a  poor  stupid  young  preacher,  if  he  be 
very  modest,  will  win  the  affection  and  regard 
of  the  people,  while  a  really  able,  thoughtful, 
scholarly  man  who  gives  any  hint  that  he  thinks 
himself  so,  will  get  their  backs  up  at  once.  I 
have  known  men  whose  whole  position  in  their 
parish  was  affected  by  their  first  sermon.  I 
remember  some  who  began  by  confidently  ex- 
plaining their  duties  to  men  who  had  been  fol- 
lowing Christ  before  the  preacher  was  born. 
And  I  remember  a  sermon  by  one  of  my  own 
young  curates  just  ordained  who  began  by 
preaching  about  the  miracle  of  the  barley 
loaves;  and  after  pointing  out  how  Christ  de- 

35 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon 

mands  from  us  whatever  poor  little  thing  we 
have,  and  then  blesses  and  increases  it  for  the 
help  of  others,  he  closed  his  sermon  by  saying, 
"How  else  could  I  dare  to  appear  before  you 
to-day,  young,  ignorant,  stupid,  inexperienced, 
with  my  poor  little  miserable  barley  loaves? 
Only  I  am  longing  and  praying  that  the  Lord 
will  do  with  them  as  he  did  of  old,  and  that, 
perhaps,  even  by  means  of  me,  some  one  may  be 
helped."  That  congregation  took  him  to  their 
hearts  at  once.  I  trust  my  warning  is  not  nec- 
essary for  you.  It  ought  not  to  be,  for  any 
young  preacher  who  realises  the  tremendous 
solemnity  of  his  position,  and  his  own  unfitness 
for  it,  and,  I  trust,  you  will  realise  that. 

And  there  is  another  warning  needed,  for  a 
young  preacher  beginning.  Indeed  it  is  but 
part  of  the  same  warning  as  to  modesty.  Be 
careful  in  your  earliest  sermons  to  try  and  gain 
the  confidence  of  the  people.  It  is  not  at  all 
difficult,  for  the  congregation  is  usually  dis- 
posed to  have  a  kindly  sympathetic  feeling  for 
a  young  man  beginning.  They  are  kindlier  to 
all  of  us  than  we  deserve  but  especially  in  our 
young  days.  A  young  man  modest  and  earnest 
and  desirous  to  help  them,  easily  wins  their 
sympathy. 

36 


The  Preacher:   His  First  Five  Years 

If  he  be  anything  of  a  thinker  and  has  strong" 
youthful  opinions  on  certain  debated  subjects 
he  will  like  to  air  those  opinions^  Better  not 
just  yet.  If  some  of  the  things  on  which  you 
feel  strongly  are  amongst  the  burning  ques- 
tions, questions  on  which  there  is  suspicion  or 
controversy — I  think  you  ought  to  defer  them 
till  the  people  have  got  to  know  you,  or  at  any 
rate  be  expressly  careful  as  to  the  impression 
you  may  leave.  You  have,  I  hope,  learned  by 
this  time  how  very  unlikely  I  am  to  advise  you 
to  be  timid  preachers,  or  to  hide  any  of  God's 
truth  however  distasteful.  You  must  often 
preach  things  that  are  distasteful  to  people. 
But  it  is  only  commonsense  to  say,  don't  begin 
with  what  may  be  distasteful  when  you  have 
so  many  other  truths  to  teach.  The  people  who 
regard  youth  as  likeable  do  not  regard  it  as 
infallible.  Some  of  the  less  educated  people 
especially  are  at  first  a  bit  watchful  and  sus- 
picious of  the  younger  clergy,  just  come  fresh 
from  the  Divinity  Schools,  I  was  told,  some 
time  since,  of  an  old  rector  in  the  country  who 
got  a  new  curate.  The  new  curate  was  an  en- 
thusiast. He  made  people  sit  up  and  listen  who 
were  accustomed  to  be  somnolent  when  the 
rector  preached.    One  day,  the  rector  asked  his 

37 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon 

churchwarden,  "Why  do  you  go  to  sleep  when 
I  preach,  and  Hsten  so  carefully  to  the  sermon 

of    Mr.    X ?"        "Ah!    sir,"    replied   the 

churchwarden,  "we  know  it  is  all  right  when 
you  preach,  but  we  are  not  so  sure  about  these 
young  curates."  We  may  smile  at  that  feeling. 
But  long  experience  has  taught  me  to  say  to 
you,  never  despise  it,  and  do  not  resent  it  un- 
less you  know  that  it  arises  from  mere  desire  to 
find  fault.  Some  of  the  truest  and  most  earnest 
Christian  men  of  the  less  educated  classes — 
men  who  will  be  your  most  faithful  helpers — 
may  easily  be  estranged  from  you  by  unneces- 
sary suspicion  until  they  get  to  know  you. 
Therefore,  be  careful,  and  remember  it  is  part 
of  the  duty  you  owe  to  your  parish  and  to  your 
Lord  not  to  put  a  stumbling-block  before  one  of 
His  little  ones. 

I  told  you  to  begin  by  saying  what  you  your- 
self felt  most  deeply.  In  a  very  short  time  you 
will  have  dealt  with  all  such  subjects,  and  will 
probably  begin  to  wonder,  as  I  did,  whether 
there  was  anything  else  in  the  whole  range  of 
truth  worth  preaching  about.  There  will  come 
to  you  that  miserable  experience  of  wondering 

38 


The  Preacher:   His  First  Five  Years 

every  Monday  "What  on  earth  am  I  to  preach 
about  next  Sunday?"  You  will  probably  worry 
and  waste  your  time  over  that  for  most  of  the 
week,  and  then  rush  to  prepare  some  subject 
hurriedly  for  Sunday.  This  must  not  go  on. 
It  is  not  only  a  waste  of  time,  it  is  also  a  severe 
nerve  strain  on  any  earnest  man,  and  will  re- 
sult in  very  unsatisfactory  sermons.  Try  to 
be  orderly  and  systematic  and  calm.  Try  to 
plan  beforehand  for  some  weeks  what  you  are 
going  to  preach  about.  Try  not  to  fall  into 
the  haphazard  way  of  teaching  from  the  pulpit, 
which  is  much  too  common.  In  some  pulpits 
there  is  no  order,  no  system.  Men  dip  in  here 
and  there  into  the  Bible  in  the  most  random 
way.  No  one  can  prepare  for  their  teaching. 
No  one  has  any  idea  what  it  will  be  about.  One 
day  a  verse  from  St.  James,  then  a  verse  out  of 
the  Chronicles,  odd  verses  and  odd  subjects  at 
random,  without  any  order  or  connection  in  the 
teaching. 

Such  random  haphazard  teaching  will  never 
help  your  people  to  an  orderly  systematic  grasp 
of  religious  truth.  Of  course  you  must  often 
preach  on  separate  disconnected  subjects.  But 
behind  them  should  lie  the  great  basal  founda- 
tions, the  fundamental  truths  of  Christianity,. 

39 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon 

Por  2000  years  the  church  has  prescribed  a 
valuable  course  of  teaching  in  the  order  of  the 
Christian  Year.  The  Roman  and  Greek  and 
Anglican  churches  are  bound  to  this  scheme  to 
their  great  advantage.  I  think  it  would  be  well 
for  preachers  in  any  Christian  denomination  to 
follow  a  plan  tested  for  centuries. 

Begin  in  December  with  the  four  Advent 
Sundays  in  preparation  for  Christmas.  Teach 
of  the  First  Coming,  the  preparation  in  history 
for  Christ  and  the  Second  Coming  in  so  far  as 
you  understand  it.  Then  the  Christmas  Story 
and  the  teaching  about  the  Incarnation.  A 
couple  of  months  later  comes  the  six  weeks  of 
Lenten  teaching  before  Easter.  Preach  on  Sin, 
Repentance,  Prayer,  Bible  Study,  Holy  Com- 
munion and  the  inner  devotional  life.  Easter 
and  the  Sundays  immediately  following  give 
fine  opportunities  for  teaching  about  the  Resur- 
rection and  the  great  Forty  Days  before  the 
Ascension.  These  might  well  be  followed  by  a 
series  on  the  Life  after  Death.  The  Whitsun- 
tide season  would  of  course  be  occupied  with 
preaching  about  the  Holy  Spirit. 

Thus  you  have  a  series  of  teaching  from 
December  to  May  on  the  basal  truths  of  re- 
ligion.   The  other  half  year  would  remain  for 

40 


The  PreacKer:   His  Fir  si;  Five  Years 

your    separate    subjects   prominent   in   which 
should  be  events  in  the  Life  of  Our  Lord. 


§3 

This  should  help  you  in  some  degree  in  your 
Monday  perplexity.  To  go  further  in  this  di- 
rection I  would  sketch  out  a  few  courses  of 
sermons.  The  Creed  is  rather  too  difficult  a 
series  to  begin  with.  Try  an  easier  course,  say 
the  Parables.  They  can  be  made  very  interest- 
ing. By  the  way,  in  addition  to  Trench  and 
such  other  books,  there  is  a  capital  little  treatise 
by  Marcus  Dods,  full  of  freshness  and  new 
points  of  view ;  I  strongly  recommend  it.  An- 
other very  simple  and  interesting  series  would 
be  on  Bible  biographies.  In  any  of  these  sub- 
jects your  senior  brother  clergy  could  probably 
advise  you  as  to  books  that  you  did  not  know 
of.  For  example,  in  preaching  about  the  men 
of  the  Old  Testament,  you  might  begin  by  read- 
ing Stanley's  Jewish  Church.  Then  Nisbet 
and  Co.,  London,  have  published  a  series  of 
monographs  on  the  men  of  the  Bible.  There  is 
a  book  of  lectures  by  Fredk.  Denison  Maurice 
on  the  Patriarchs  and  Lawgivers,  also  on  the 
Prophets  and  Kings,  probably  out  of  print,  but 

41 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon 

easy  to  get  still  through  a  second-hand  book- 
seller. There  is  also  a  little  set  of  biographies 
by  Mr.  Meyer,  a  Baptist  minister,  not  at  all 
deep  or  scholarly,  but  interesting  and  full  of 
illustrations,  and  really  spiritual  in  tone.  I  do 
not  want  you  to  choke  up  your  mind  with  other 
men's  thoughts,  or  to  express  other  men's 
thoughts  instead  of  your  own.  But  when  you 
are  young  you  feel  at  times  that  thoughts  do 
not  come  too  plentifully,  and  if  you  have  read 
some  good  books  and  digested  them  and  let 
the  thoughts  in  them  gradually  affect  your  men- 
tal tissue,  you  will  find  a  good  deal  of  pleasure 
and  advantage  from  working  as  I  suggest. 

In  your  second  or  third  year  you  should  be 
ready  to  face  a  series  on  the  Apostles'  Creed. 
Not  necessarily  consecutively;  the  subjects  are 
too  big  for  that  at  first.  But  have  them  ready 
to  face  on  the  first  Monday  that  you  are  per- 
plexed for  a  subject.  You  see  what  grand 
themes  they  give  you — The  Fatherhood  of  God ; 
The  Incarnation;  The  Passion;  The  Descent 
into  Hades ;  The  Resurrection,  etc.  Keep  plan- 
ning and  collecting  for  these.  The  first  week 
that  you  are  at  a  loss  for  a  subject  turn  to  the 
drawer  where  you  have  been  collecting  material 
for  a  sermon  on  the  Fatherhood  of  God,  and  go 

42 


The  Preacher:   His  Fir  si  Five  Years 

at  it  at  once.  Give  a  good  week's  work  to  it, 
and  you  will  probably  be  delighted  with  the  re- 
sult; and,  believe  me,  you  will  have  learned  a 
good  deal  of  theology  and  given  your  people 
valuable  teaching  when  you  have  read  well  for, 
and  written  carefully,  that  series  of  sermons. 

Keep  all  these  series  of  sermons  carefully 
for  further  use.  Certainly  not  to  preach  them 
again  as  they  are.  If  you  are  really  growing  in 
your  life  you  cannot  do  that.  They  will  seem 
poor  and  crude  to  you  in  a  few  years,  but  if 
there  is  valuable  thought  in  them  use  it.  De- 
stroy the  old  manuscript — write  a  new  sermon, 
but  the  old  one  will  have  greatly  helped  you. 
The  series  of  sermons  on  these  subjects  that  I 
have  suggested  should  be  a  valuable  and  perma- 
nent help  all  through  your  life,  therefore,  do 
your  best  at  them. 

I  believe  greatly  in  courses  of  sermons,  if 
you  can  make  short  enough  courses,  and  if  you 
are  sufficiently  interested  in  them  to  make  them 
very  interesting  to  your  people.  I  find  that  the 
people  tire  of  a  course  if  it  exceeds  about  six 
sermons.  But  that  depends  on  the  preacher's 
power  to  interest  them.  Some  of  you  might 
find  it  possible  to  keep  up  interest  in  much 
longer   courses,   and  especially  in   a   country 

43 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon 

church  where  the  people  have  not  so  many 
other  things  to  take  up  their  attention.  And  in 
this  connection,  let  me  say,  our  teaching  would 
become  much  more  systematic  if  we  had  more 
■expository  preaching.  It  is  a  great  need.  Peo- 
ple do  not  learn  the  Bible,  they  do  not  learn 
how  full  of  interest  a  book  of  the  Bible  is  when 
rightly  understood.  I  do  not  find  it  easy  in  a 
town  parish  where  the  congregations  change  a 
good  deal,  and  where  the  same  preacher  does 
not  occupy  exclusively  the  morning  or  evening 
pulpit.  But  if  I  were  the  sole  preacher  in  a 
country  church,  I  think,  either  at  morning  or 
evening  service,  I  should  always  have  a  book  of 
the  Bible  on  hand.  When  I  came  to  my  present 
parish  I  announced  that  I  would  try  to  teach 
the  main  books  of  the  Bible  in  ten  years,  giving 
to  it  the  first  three  months  of  each  year.  I 
began  with  Genesis,  it  is  an  intensely  interest- 
ing book.  The  Creation ;  the  Fall ;  the  story  of 
Abraham,  Isaac,  Jacob,  and  Joseph.  The  fol- 
lowing year  came  the  Life  of  Moses,  then  the 
Prophets  and  Kings,  the  Life  of  Our  Lord,  the 
Life  and  Letters  of  St.  Paul,  etc.  So  each  year 
for  three  months  together  I  turned  the  whole 
morning  congregation  into  a  huge  Bible  class, 
and  I  was  astonished  and  delighted  at  the  pleas- 

44 


The  Preacher:   His  First  Five  Years 

ure  that  these  three  months  gave  to  myself  and, 
I  think,  to  the  people.  They  never  seemed  to 
object  to  the  length  of  the  courses.  I  feel  sure 
many  of  you  could  do  this ;  only  if  you  try  you 
must  beware  of  doing  it  minutely — just  the 
great  broad  lines  of  teaching  and  no  more.^ 
A  very  good  specimen  of  such  work  is  F.  W. 
Robertson's  Lectures  on  the  Epistles  to  the 
Corinthians. 

§4 

Now  let  us  discuss  some  questions  on  which 
opinion  is  divided.  ( i )  Ought  you  to  preach  in 
these  early  days  about  doubt  and  scepticism, 
and  discuss  infidel  theories  in  the  pulpit  ?  That 
depends  not  only  on  what  your  congregation 
is,  but  also,  and  chiefly,  on  what  you  are  your- 
self. There  are  certain  congregations  that  one 
need  never  preach  to  on  such  subjects.  But, 
also,  there  are  certain  clergy  who  are  not  com- 
petent to  deal  effectively  with  such  subjects. 
Men  who  have  never  had  any  doubt  or  intel- 
lectual struggle,  and  who  have  no  sympathy 
with  such.    They  may  be  very  holy  men,  able  to 

^Publisher's  Note. — The  above  lectures  by  the  author  are 
now  published  in  simple  form  in  five  small  volumes,  The 
Bible  for  School  and  Home  (George  H.  Doran  Company). 

45 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon 

help  the  main  part  of  their  congregation,  per- 
haps better  than  most  others  could,  but  they 
cannot  understand  or  sympathise  with,  they 
cannot  put  themselves  in  the  place  of  the  man 
who  is  innately  sceptical,  to  whom  doubt  comes 
very  much  easier  than  belief.  There  are  such 
sceptical  natures,  good  and  faithful  seekers 
after  God,  and,  therefore,  surely  acceptable  to 
God.  I  think  if  you  have  never  had  doubts  or 
difficulties  yourself  you  will  probably  never  be 
as  helpful  to  sceptics  as  the  man  who  has 
thought  and  doubted  and  agonised  and  fought 
his  way  down  to  the  solid  bed-rock  of  faith  for 
himself.  Not  as  helpful  I  say.  But  you  can  be 
very  helpful  to  the  sceptic  for  all  that,  if  the 
real  Christlike  spirit  of  love  is  in  you.  For  if 
you,  like  your  Master,  are  trying  to  rhake  the 
best,  and  think  the  best,  and  look  for  the  best 
in  others,  you  will  think  the  best  of  the  man 
who  is  honest  in  his  doubt.  You  will  believe  it 
quite  possible  for  a  doubter  to  be  in  earnest  and 
to  be  longing  after  God  and  righteousness. 
For  there  is  no  sin  in  honest  doubt.  If  a  man 
cannot  believe  what  else  tan  he  do  but  doubt? 
Get  in  sympathy  with  your  doubter.  Talk  to 
him.  And  thus  you  will  be  able  to  tell  him  that 
doubt  itself   is   hot   sin,   and  that  the   great 

46 


The  Preacher:   His  First  Five  Years 

Father  is  looking-  with  loving  solicitude  on  His 
poor  wandering  children  in  the  wood  seeking 
the  path  home.  Indeed  if  you  feel  thus  I  am 
not  sure  that  your  strong  unquestioning  faith 
will  not  be  as  great  a  help  to  the  doubter  as  the 
sympathy  which  you  would  feel  with  him  if 
you  had  been  through  the  wood  yourself.  Make 
up  your  mind  that  there  is  a  great  deal  of  latent 
scepticism  amongst  men  and  amongst  women 
too,  in  this  age.  But  make  up  your  mind,  too, 
hot  to  be  over  tender  and  over  sentimental 
about  it  because  a  large  part  of  it  is  very  unreal 
— superficial  objections  picked  up  at  second- 
hand and  fostered  through  pure  carelessness, 
or  a  desire  to  appear  clever  and  thoughtful. 
There  are  the  real  earnest  doubters,  whose 
hearts  are  sore  and  who  are  longing  for  the 
light.  But  it  is  well  to  warn  you  that  in  my 
own  experience,  and  it  has  been  considerable, 
the  majority  who  have  doubts  could  get  rid  of 
them  very  easily  if  they  were  in  real  earnest. 
Therefore,  in  preaching  about  scepticism,  while 
being  very  tender  with  one  class,  remind  your 
audience  that  many  belong  to  the  other,  and 
preach  to  such  sternly  and  with  reproof  for  the 
injury  they  are  doing  to  the  cause  of  God.  This 
warning  is  necessary.    I  who  had  myself  suf- 

47 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon 

f ered  from  doubts  was,  in  the  beginning  of  my 
ministry,  a  great  deal  too  tender  and  sentimen- 
tal with  a  set  of  men  who  cared  very  little,  and 
who  argued  things  with  me  largely  for  the  in- 
tellectual interest. 

(2)  In  this  connection  comes  the  question, 
Should  one  preach  about  such  subjects  as  Sci- 
ence and  Religion?  If  you  are  competent  to  do 
so,  and  if  you  have  reason  to  believe  that  it 
would  be  helpful  in  your  parish,  do  so  by  all 
means.  If  there  are  only  a  few  who  need  it, 
better  do  it  in  private  conversation.  But  if  you 
can  so  present  a  scientific  difficulty  that  men 
may  see  it  does  not  affect  religion  rightly  un- 
derstood, by  all  means  preach  it.  But  preach 
such  things  seldom,  and  then  preach  them  with 
great  care,  writing  the  sermon  and  submitting 
it  to  wise  friends  before  preaching.  For  these 
are  very  difficult  things  to  say  well  within  the 
limits  of  a  short  sermon,  and  to  say  them  badly 
or  incompletely  will  do  far  more  harm  than 
good.  On  the  whole,  for  your  first  five  years, 
when  you  will  probably  feel  most  prompted  to 
do  it,  you  should  be  inclined  to  doubt  your  ca- 
pacity for  doing  it  well.  If  you  try  to  do  it  at 
all,  be  sure  you  do  it  with  absolute  honesty  and 
fairness.     Be  quite  sure  that  you  understand 

48 


The  Preacher:   His  First  Five  Years 

your  opponent.  Assume  that  the  opponents  are 
as  honest  men  as  yourself,  and  that  they  seri- 
ously believe  what  they  say.  Never  attempt  to 
sneer,  never  attempt  to  rouse  the  odium  tlieo- 
logicum,  never  suggest  that  the  efifect  of  their 
opinions  on  religious  belief  should  prevent  them 
holding  such  opinions.  It  is  nothing  less  than 
insult  to  scientific  men  to  ask  that  they  should 
be  influenced  in  their  search  for  truth  by  any 
thought  of  the  way  in  which  their  conclusions 
would  affect  religious  belief.  Above  all,  never 
understate,  or  unfairly  state,  their  position.  If 
you  touch  controversy  at  all  be  absolutely  gen- 
erous and  fair  and  honest.  Do  not  try  to  lie 
for  God :  do  not  try  to  cast  out  devils  by  Beel- 
zebub, the  prince  of  the  devils. 

About  Higher  Criticism,  and  questions  of 
inspiration  of  Scripture,  I  think  you  should 
sometimes  speak.  If  you  believe  that  there  is 
nothing  to  be  afraid  of  you  should  speak  out 
and  say  so.  Don't  imagine  the  people  are  not 
thinking  of  it — they  are.  Especially  should 
you  try  gradually  and  steadily  to  correct  those 
old  false  views  about  the  Bible  and  verbal  in- 
spiration, which  are  the  chief  stronghold  of 
sceptical  attacks  on  Scripture.  It  is  so  easy  for 
sceptics  to  point  out  to  simple  people  in  the  Old 

49 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon 

Testament  permitted  usages  that  we  would  not 
tolerate  to-day,  and  sentiments  of  inspired  men, 
which,  we  feel,  could  not  win  the  approval  of 
Christ.  Some  time  since  a  devout  Christian 
lady,  an  earnest  simple  student  of  Scripture, 
came  to  me.  A  sceptical  friend  had  been  dis- 
turbing her  belief  in  God  and  the  Bible.  He 
showed  her  how  slavery  was  permitted  in  the 
inspired  teaching,  and  plurality  of  wives,  and 
that  a  man  was  allowed  to  divorce  his  wife  for 
a  slight  reason.  He  pointed  to  the  blessing  on 
Jael  and  the  Psalmist  uttering  prayers  for  ven- 
geance on  his  foes.  "And  this,"  he  sneered,  "is 
the  God  of  your  devotion,  this  is  your  inspired 
Bible." 

Much  of  the  flippant  popular  scepticism 
comes  from  lack  of  teaching  the  people  how  to 
regard  and  how  to  read  the  Bible.  Here,  for 
example,  my  friend  had  to  be  taught  of  the  pro- 
gressive nature  of  God's  revelation  to  the 
world — that  the  human  race  is  as  a  gigantic 
man  having  to  be  taught  gradually  from  child- 
hood as  he  could  bear  it — that  the  old-world 
men  were  but  in  the  lower  classes  of  God's 
school — that  the  Old  Testament  was  but  pre- 
paratory  to  the   higher   teaching  of   Christ. 

50 


The  Preacher:   His  First  Five  Years 

Teach  the  people  how  to  read  their  Bible.     It 
is  a  very  important  thing  to  do  for  them. 


§5 

With  regard  to  "questions  of  the  day"  I 
think  the  preacher  should  deal  with  them  at 
times  when  they  are  deeply  occupying  the 
thoughts  of  his  people.  It  is  his  duty  at  such 
times  to  teach  the  relation  of  God's  law  to  pub- 
lic duties  and  public  questions,  the  use  of  the 
ballot,  capital  and  labor  disputes,  etc.  But  not 
often.  And  only  in  order  to  bring  religion  as 
an  "applied  science"  to  bear  on  them.  The  only 
question  for  the  preacher  is.  What  would  the 
Lord  Jesus  do?  What  would  He  say?  And 
the  preacher  should  be  clear  about  the  answer. 

For  example,  in  the  burning  question  of 
Capital  and  Labor.  I  asked  an  educated  work- 
ing man  one  day.  Why  do  not  the  workingmen 
come  oftener  to  church?  "Let  the  church  come 
out  boldly,"  he  said,  "as  her  Master  would  on 
the  side  of  the  masses,  on  the  side  of  Labor 
against  Capital.  Then  you  would  see  the 
masses  following  Him  as  they  did  in  Galilee." 
But  that  is  not  true.  Her  Master  took  no  sides 
except  that  of  Right  against  Wrong,  of  Un- 

51 


The  Preacher  mid  His  Sermon 

selfishness  against  Selfishness  irrespective  of 
classes.  A  partisan  church  would  not  repre- 
sent Christ  and  would  not  in  the  long  run  at- 
tract even  the  workers.  If  Jesus  did  not  flatter 
the  rich  neither  did  He  flatter  the  poor.  Of  all 
who  ever  served  the  people  He  was  the  frank- 
est. He  held  up  His  high  ideals,  Righteousness, 
Unselfishness,  and  left  all  to  apply  them  to  their 
individual  cases.  His  church's  business  is  to 
follow  His  lead.  Here  in  the  matter  of  pro- 
duction there  are  three  partners,  the  Capitalist 
who  provides  means  for  labor ;  the  Worker  by 
hand  or  brain  who  produces  or  distributes ;  the 
Consumer  without  whom  the  others  would 
have  no  place.  Formerly  the  Capitalist  usurped 
power  over  the  others.  Now  the  Worker  is 
trying  to  do  so.  And  the  Consumer  would 
probably  do  the  same  if  he  could.  The  Church's 
place  is  to  represent  her  Lord,  to  say  to  Capi- 
talist and  Worker  and  Consumer  alike,  "Sirs, 
ye  are  brethren,  why  do  ye  wrong  one  to  an- 
other ?  One  is  your  Master  even  Christ  and  all 
ye  are  brethren." 

But  if  the  Church  must  not  take  sides  in  the 
warfare  of  classes  who  are  now  very  well  able 
to  fight  for  themselves,  there  is  one  class  that 
she  must  always  take  sides  with,  the  poor,  the 

52 


The  Preacher:   His  Firsft  Five  Years 

helpless,  the  oppressed.  And  she  has  not  been 
doing-  it.  Often  has  their  bitter  cry  gone  up  to 
her  Lord,  "Your  Christians  have  been  so  busy- 
saving  their  souls  that  they  have  no  time  to 
save  us.  There  is  great  need  in  our  day  of  em- 
phasizing the  duty  of  Social  Service  and  es- 
pecially in  our  cities.  Such  questions  as  the 
Housing  of  the  Poor,  Old  Age  Pensions,  Play- 
grounds for  children  in  the  slums,  etc.,  greatly 
need  to  be  discussed  with  religious  people.  If 
ever  the  Church  is  to  represent  her  Lord  aright 
that  the  multitudes  may  follow  Him  she  must 
go  out  into  the  open  and  champion  the  help- 
less. She  must  insist  on  the  duty  of  Social 
Religion. 

What  do  we  mean  by  Social  Religion  ?  There 
are  two  favourite  saints  in  the  Greek  Church, 
St.  Cassian  and  St.  Nicolaus.  Cassian  is  the 
type  of  individual  Christianity.  He  took  great 
care  of  himself  and  his  soul's  salvation;  he 
had  six  services  a  day  with  fasts  and  scourg- 
ings.  Nicolaus  was  of  another  t3^e.  His  life 
was  spent  in  service.  He  helped  the  poor  for 
Christ's  sake.  He  tended  the  sick.  He  made 
little  children  happy.  His  name,  St.  Nicolaus, 
we  have  corrupted  to  Santa  Claus, 

53 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon 

Cassian,  according  to  the  legend,  enters 
Heaven  and  is  questioned  by  the  Lord. 

"What  hast  thou  seen  on  earth,  Cassian,  as  thou 
earnest  hither?" 

"Lord,  I  saw  a  wagoner  floundering  in  the  mud." 

"And  didst  thou  help  him?" 

"Nay,  Lord,  I  was  coming  into  thy  presence  and  I 
feared  to  soil  my  white  robes." 

Afterwards  Nicolaus  comes  in  all  stained  and  soiled 
with  mire. 

"Why  so  stained  and  soiled,  Nicolaus,"  asks  the 
Lord. 

"I  saw  a  poor  wagoner,"  said  Nicolaus,  "floundering 
in  the  mud  and  I  had  to  put  my  shoulder  to  the  wheel 
to  help  him  out." 

"Thou  didst  well,  Nicolaus,"  said  the  Lord.  "Thou, 
Cassian,  since  thou  didst  guard  the  white  robes  of  thy 
baptism  shall  haul  a  day  every  year  dedicated  to  thee. 
Thou,  Nicolaus,  since  thou  didst  help  thy  brother  out 
of  the  mud  thou  shalt  have  four." 

Which  things  are  an  allegory.  God  will 
bless  and  prosper  His  church  in  proportion  to 
the  help  which  she  gives  to  His  poor  children 
floundering  in  the  mire  for  whom  Christ  died. 

Which  things  are  also  an  illustration  of  two 
types  of  religion  in  the  church  today.  The 
first  is  occupied  with  the  thought  of  one's  own 
soul,  one's  own  devotion  to  God,  one's  respon- 
sibility for  one's  own  spiritual  life.  This  we 
may  call  Individual  Religion.  Let  no  man 
make  light  of  it  in  his  enthusiasm  for  Social 

54 


The  Preacher:   His  First  Five  Years 

Service.  It  has  been  in  all  ages  the  inspiration 
of  saints  and  heroes  who  have  placed  above 
everything  holiness  of  life.  It  is  in  the  deepen- 
ing of  the  Individual  Religion  lies  the  hope  for 
the  future  of  the  Church  and  of  the  world.  But 
as  it  deepens  and  strengthens  it  will  remain  no 
more  Individual  Religion.  As  religion  grows 
there  comes  to  it  its  crown  and  blossom.  More 
of  the  Christlikeness  passes  into  it,  the  love  and 
pity  for  all  our  fellowmen,  the  pain  at  all  the 
evils  which  beset  them,  the  indignation  against 
all  the  wrong  that  is  done  them,  the  generous 
enthusiasm  to  spend  and  be  spent  for  them,  the 
resolve  that  they  shall  get  the  chance  at  least 
to  live  out  the  best  that  is  in  them. 

If  your  "topical  sermons"  deal  with  subjects 
of  this  kind  you  may  safely  regard  them  as 
"preaching  Christ."  But  for  the  general  topics 
of  the  day  be  chary  of  dealing  with  them. 
People  in  church  do  not  want  the  pabulum  of 
the  newspapers.  There  is  a  need  in  their  hearts 
more  often  than  you  know,  "Sir,  we  would  see 
Jesus." 


55 


Lecture  III 
PLACERE 


Lecture  III 
PLACERE 

§1 

I  WANT  here  to  emphasise  a  matter  of  vital 
necessity  in  your  preaching  which  usually  is  by 
no  means  emphasised  as  it  should  be.  I  mean 
the  habit  of  interesting  your  people,  holding 
their  attention  right  through  your  sermon.  I 
call  it  a  habit  rather  than  a  power  because  I 
think  it  is  possible  for  any  intelligent  man  to 
do  it  if  he  will  take  the  trouble  and  acquire  the 
habit. 

Do  you  know  Cicero's  essentials  of  oratory: 

1.  Placere  (to  interest), 

2.  Docere  (to  teach). 

3.  Movere  (to  move). 

The  second  and  third  of  course  go  without  say- 
ing. Unfortunately  what  that  wise  old  Roman 
placed  as  the  first  seems  regarded  by  many 
preachers  as  of  minor  importance.    Of  course 

59 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon 

it  is  not  much  good  to  do  the  Placere  if  you  do 
not  go  on  from  it  to  the  Doccre  and  Movere. 
But  still  the  Placere  is  what  wants  the  especial 
emphasis,  since  it  seems  so  commonly  ignored. 
Whole  hosts  of  preachers  who  have  a  good  deal 
to  teach  people  and  who  are  eager  to  move  peo- 
ple, seem  to  go  on  year  after  year  without  any 
sore  searchings  of  heart  as  to  whether  they  are 
"interesting"  these  people.  I  do  not  see  much 
good  in  your  valuable  teaching  and  in  your 
vehement  exhorting,  if  the  people  are  surrep- 
titiously glancing  at  their  watches  to  see  if  the 
twenty  minutes  is  nearly  up. 

§2 

There  are  two  axioms  which  I  desire  to  lay 
down — (i)  Preaching  is  of  no  use  at  all  unless 
you  can  make  the  people  listen  to  it;  (2)  It  is 
possible  for  us  all,  more  or  less,  to  make  them 
listen. 

I  think  it  was  Archbishop  Magee  that  de- 
scribed in  a  sentence  the  three  types  of  preach- 
ers. "There  are  some  preachers,"  he  said, 
"whom  you  cannot  listen  to;  there  are  some 
preachers  whom  you  can  listen  to;  there  are 
some  preachers  whom  you  must  listen  to."    I 

60 


Placere 

think  there  is  a  considerable  number  of  the  first, 
a  very  great  number  of  the  second,  and  ex- 
tremely few  of  the  third — extremely  few — and 
I  do  not  believe  this  need  be  so.  In  fact  I  am 
quite  sure  it  need  not,  and,  therefore,  I  want 
you  to  increase  the  ranks  of  the  third,  and  to 
make  up  your  minds  that  if  work  and  study  and 
anxiety  about  it  will  do  anything,  you  are  de- 
termined in  your  future  ministry  to  make  men 
listen  to  you. 

And  with  that  in  view,  I  want  you  first  not 
to  excuse  yourselves  by  the  common  cant  of  the 
so-called  "religious  world"  about  the  distaste 
that  people  have  for  hearing  about  religion. 
Don't  you  believe  it.  It  is  a  great  comfort  to  a 
dull,  stupid  preacher  who  has  not  put  any  en- 
thusiasm into  his  sermon,  or  taken  any  thought 
or  trouble  to  make  it  interesting  to  the  people, 
to  console  himself  for  the  bored,  uninterested 
look  of  his  audience  by  the  reflection  that  the 
fault  is  not  in  his  sermon  but  in  the  distaste  of 
"the  natural  man"  for  religious  teaching.  It 
would  be  amusing  if  it  were  not  so  sad  to  hear 
him  say  with  calm  self-satisfaction  that  his 
business  is  to  preach  God's  Word  whether  men 
hear  or  forbear.  Ah !  if  he  could  but  hear  the 
opinions  of  his  audience,  not  only  of  the  care- 

6i 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon 

less  but  of  those  also  who  are  caring  to  be 
helped ;  if  he  could  mingle  with  the  people  com- 
ing out  of  church  and  hear  the  very  unflatter- 
ing comments  as  to  the  length  and  diffuseness 
and  platitudes  of  his  sermon,  it  might  be  a  very- 
salutary  experience.  We  clergy  do  not  hear 
half  enough  of  what  the  laity  say  of  us.  It 
would  be  better  if  we  did.  This  poor  pati«nt 
laity!  I  think  they  deserve  great  sympathy. 
It  is  perfectly  exasperating  the  way  that  intelli- 
gent lay  people  are  treated  by  lazy  and  self- 
sufficient  preachers.  One  does  not  wonder  that 
many  of  them  have  been  driven  off  from 
church.  Recently  I  was  away  in  Switzerland 
at  a  favourite  English  resort,  and  had  many 
serious  talks  with  lay  people  from  various 
places,  and  the  two  things  that  most  impressed 
me  were  the  complaints  that  we  clergy  preach 
such  uninteresting  sermons,  and  the  revelation 
that  a  great  many  seemingly  careless  people  are 
really  wanting  to  learn  and  to  be  interested. 

Now  you  must  take  men  as  they  are.  The 
general  congregation  may  not  be  very  eager  to 
hear  what  you  have  got  to  say,  but  they  are,  as 
a  rule,  quite  willing  to  listen  to  you.  Indeed 
as  they  have  to  sit  still  during  the  sermon,  in 
any  case,   the  most  careless  of  them  would 

62 


Placere 

rather  listen  and  be  interested  than  not ;  and  if 
they  are  interested  and  listen,  you  may  be  sure 
that  after  the  sermon  is  over  a  good  deal  of 
thought  will  be  given  to  what  you  have  said, 
and  if  you  have  got  into  the  habit  of  interest- 
ing them,  they  will  get  into  the  habit  of  listen- 
ing, and  into  the  habit  of  thinking  too,  about 
What  you  have  said  to  them.    I  should  like  you 
to  give  this  thought  full  entrance  into  your 
minds,  that  your  people  are  willing  enough  to 
listen  if  you  make  it  worth  while  for  them; 
and  that,  therefore,  if  your  congregation  seem 
habitually  dull  and  uninterested  you  should,  at 
least,   have  grave  searchings  of  heart  as  to 
whether  the  fault  is  not  in  yourself.    Some  stu- 
pid person  may  object,  that  this  is  making  too 
much  of  our  own  human  efforts,  and  tell  us  that 
God  can  use  very  dull  sermons  to  the  helping 
of  men's  souls.    Of  course  that  is  so,  and  it  is 
very  well  that  it  is,   for  there  are  certainly 
plenty  of  dull  sermons  to  be  so  used.     But 
surely  such  talk  is  utter  rubbish.    Surely  (other 
things  being  equal)   it  is  likely  that  God  will 
use  for  most  good  the  sermon  that  has  been 
best  listened  to  by  the  people. 


63 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon 

§3 

First,  then,  drive  the  conviction  deep  into 
your  mind  that  you  can  make  people  listen  if 
you  are  willing  to  pay  the  price.  I  know  a  good 
many  uninteresting  preachers.  Some  have  not 
yet  discovered  that  they  are  uninteresting. 
They  are  beyond  hope.  Some  have  discovered 
it  and  rest  there  believing  that  they  lack  the 
gift  and  cannot  help  it.  There  is  some  hope  for 
them. 

You  CAN  make  people  listen.  Some,  of 
course,  can  do  it  more  than  others.  Some  men 
have  a  personal  magnetism  which  commands 
attention.  But  we  can  all  be  really  interesting 
preachers  if  we  want  to,  and  therefore  it  is 
sin  and  shame  to  fail  in  being  so.  In  the  next 
chapter  I  deal  with  the  most  serious  cause  of 
this  failure.  Here  I  just  offer  a  few  obvious 
suggestions. 

( I )  Have  something  to  say.  And  say  it  in 
as  few  words  as  you  can.  And  then  stop.  I 
once  heard  a  chairman  put  it  to  the  speakers  at 
a  meeting,  "Stand  up.     Speak  up.     Shut  up." 

Stand  up  in  your  pulpit  not  because  you  have 
to  say  something  but  because  you  have  some- 

64 


Plucere 

thing  to  say.  Make  sure  of  that  first.  Then 
say  it.  Don't  preach  it  or  elaborate  it.  Just 
say  it  as  simply  and  naturally  as  you  would  say 
it  in  conversation.  And  say  it  in  the  fewest 
words  that  you  can.  Cut  out  of  your  sermon 
every  word  that  can  be  dispensed  with.  Put 
yourself  in  the  position  of  a  speaker  at  an  im- 
patient public  meeting  with  the  dread  of  the 
chairman's  bell  waiting  to  ring  you  down — 
where  you  must  say  your  best  and  say  it  ef- 
fectively before  you  are  "caught  out."  This 
does  not  mean  that  you  must  always  preach  a 
short  sermon,  but  that  you  must  preach  it  in 
the  shortest  time  possible  to  you.  The  pulpit 
to-day  is  complaining  of  the  impatient  demand 
for  short  sermons.  It  serves  the  pulpit  right. 
It  is  the  Nemesis  of  much  windy  talking  in  the 
past.  This  impatience  has  harm  in  it.  We  are 
getting  fewer  of  the  great  sermons  on  great 
subjects  which  cannot  be  briefly  handled.  But 
there  is  some  gain  in  it  too.  The  sermon  be- 
comes stronger  by  condensation.  And  great 
subjects  will  still  be  listened  to  at  some  length 
if  they  are  treated  effectively  without  super- 
fluous words.  I  have  heard  capital  sermons  of 
less  than  fifteen  minutes  and  I  have  heard 
preachers    not    distinguished    strangers    but 

65 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon 

clergy  of  the  parish  listened  to  without  impa- 
tience for  nearly  an  hour.  But  the  rule  held 
for  the  long  sermon  as  the  short,  that  the  points 
were  effectively  put,  and  in  as  few  words  as  the 
subject  permitted.  Cut  out  every  sentence  that 
is  not  accomplishing  something,  which  will 
usually  mean  a  good  many  sentences.  And 
when  you  have  said  what  you  want,  stop.  And 
stop  effectively.  Don't  run  around  like  a  dog 
after  his  tail.    Prepare  your  ending. 

(2)  When  your  sermon  is  prepared  go  over 
it  carefully  with  the  question.  Is  it  interesting? 
Are  there  dull  pages  in  it?  Could  I  enliven 
them  by  illustrations  or  otherwise?  Keep  on 
the  lookout  for  telling  illustrations  from  your 
reading.  But  they  should  be  few  and  brief  and 
clear  and  to  the  point.  An  illustration  that  does 
not  illustrate  is  only  a  distraction. 

(3)  Seek  to  have  variety  in  your  sermons 
and  in  your  treatment  of  subjects.  Some 
preachers  have  a  dead  uniformity  of  treatment 
however  different  the  subject  and  their  sermons 
stand  like  a  dull  uniform  row  of  workmen's 
cottages  in  a  street.  Seek  variety  of  treatment. 
For  example,  if  one  sermon  about  missions  is  a 
solid  statement  of  the  Church's  duty  and  the 
condition  of  heathendom  let  your  next  be  the 

66 


Placere 

romantic,  exciting  life  of  a  famous  missionary 
and  the  lessons  which  it  brings.  If  you  are 
arguing  the  pros  and  cons  of  a  certain  subject 
put  it  sometimes  in  form  of  a  dialogue.  Find 
striking  beginnings  for  sermons  or  for  each 
section  of  a  sermon.  Try  to  surprise  people. 
Do  everything  you  can  to  sustain  interest  and 
keep  attention  from  flagging  so  long  as  you  do 
nothing  unworthy  the  solemnity  of  your  sub- 
ject. 

(4)  Ask  yourself  in  every  sermon,  Could 
the  man  in  the  pew  tell  his  wife — or  rather  in 
these  days,  Could  the  woman  in  the  pew  tell  her 
husband  in  two  sentences  the  central  thought 
of  your  sermon?    If  not,  why  not? 

(5)  I  think,  too,  it  is  a  good  thing  to  study 
attractive  speeches  and  sermons,  not  for  their 
thoughts,  but  to  see  how  the  speaker  arranged 
his  subject,  how  he  began  and  ended,  how  he 
led  up  to  his  striking  points,  what  devices  he 
used  to  sustain  attention,  in  a  word,  to  find  out 
what  made  his  discourse  interesting. 

These  are  but  a  few  obvious  suggestions.  In 
the  next  chapter  I  speak  of  the  power  of 
"Grip"  which  will  count  more  than  aught  else 
in  making  your  people  listen^ 


67 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon 

§4 

Now  we  come  to  the  question,  what  can  you 
do  to  make  the  people  Hsten?  Mind,  you  can 
make  them  listen  if  you  are  willing  to  pay  the 
price.  Of  course,  some  can  do  it  more  than 
others.  Some  men  have  a  personal  magnetism, 
a  personal  enthusiasm,  which  commands  the 
attention.  But  even  to  some  of  us  who  have  no 
such  advantages,  this  power  of  grip  may  belong. 
We,  too,  may  interest  people  if  we  are  willing 
to  work,  and  it  is  a  sin  and  a  shame  for  us  to 
fail  in  doing  it,  especially  if  we  have  plenty  of 
time  for  preparation.  The  secret  is  simple 
enough.  Your  sermon  will  grow  more  inter- 
esting to  the  people  and  more  effective  in  in- 
fluencing the  intellect  and  conscience  in  propor- 
tion as  you  have — 

(i)  More  labour  in  thinking  out, 
(2)  More  courage  in  speaking  out,  the 
full  revelation  that  God  has  committed  to  you. 
It  is  for  want  of  these  that  our  sermons  lack 
interest,  and  become  vague  and  hazy  and  lose 
grip  of  the  people.  Let  me  speak  of  these  two 
things  separately.. 


68 


Lecture  IV 
THE  QUALITY  OF  ''GRIP" 


Lecture  IV 
THE  QUALITY  OF  "GRIP" 

§1 

Archbishop  Sancroft  once  asked  Betterton 
the  tragedian,  "How  is  it  that  when  you  speak 
everybody  listens  to  you  although  you  speak 
fiction,  but  when  we  speak  the  people  do  not 
listen  though  we  speak  the  words  of  Divine 
truth?" 

"I  think,  your  Grace,"  replied  the  actor,  "the 
reason  is  this,  you  speak  truth  as  though  you 
believed  it  to  be  fiction,  whilst  we  speak  fiction 
as  though  we  believed  it  to  be  truth." 

We  have  to  acknowledge  that  there  are 
grounds  for  this  criticism.  What  is  the  cause? 
Not  insincerity  or  doubt  about  the  facts  which 
we  teach  but  chiefly  failure  to  realise  them,  to 
grip  them  as  realities,  often  deep,  fascinating, 
exciting  realities.  Many  a  preacher  is  a  mere 
juggler  with  phrases,  floating  on  a  sea  of 
words,  not  getting  down  to  things.     So  the 

71 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon 

preacher  loses  power  in  preaching.     So  the 
people  lose  interest  in  listening. 

I  speak  to  you  now  of  this  quality  of  "Grip," 
the  habit  of  clear,  sharp  gripping  the  ideas 
which  lie  behind  the  words  and  phrases  that 
we  use.  I  am  thinking  here  mainly  of  intel- 
lectual grip  of  ideas.  But  I  must  not  pass  over 
the  imaginative  grip,  if  I  may  so  call  it,  the 
power  of  "putting  yourself  in  his  place" — of 
seeing  the  scenes  and  entering  into  the  feelings 
about  which  you  are  writing  or  preaching. 

Why  does  a  mother  read  with  flushed  and 
tearful  face  the  tale  of  a  woman's  self-sacrifice 
for  her  child?  Why  is  there  such  intense  in- 
terest for  a  schoolboy  in  a  graphic  story  of  ad- 
venture? Because  unconsciously,  without  ef- 
fort, the  imagination  is  going  forth,  living  in 
the  scene,  experiencing  every  feeling  of  the 
actors,  obeying  that  law  which  is  the  great  se- 
cret of  pleasurable  reading — put  yourself  in 
his  place.  Now  if  one  take  pains  to  acquire 
the  habit  it  is  always  possible  to  do  this  in  some 
degree  at  least ;  not  always  indeed  unconsciously 
and  without  effort — sometimes  it  requires  a 
good  deal  of  effort,  especially  in  books  so  fa- 
miliar to  us  as  are  those  of  the  Bible.  But  it  is 
worth  all  the  effort  it  costs.    The  amount  of 

72 


Tlie  Quality  of  ''Grip'' 

interest  in  any  part  will  depend  greatly  on  our 
success  in  thinking  ourselves  into  the  place  of 
the  persons  concerned,  not  merely  in  picturing 
the  outward  scene,  but  also,  in  so  far  as  may 
be,  entering  into  the  minds  of  the  speakers  and 
actors.  True,  a  greater  imaginative  power 
will  give  one  man  an  advantage  over  another, 
but  all  that  is  really  needful  for  success  is  some 
little  knowledge  of  the  circumstances  and  sur- 
roundings, and  the  effort  to  think  oneself  thor- 
oughly into  them. 

Of  course  this  is  easier  in  some  parts  than 
in  others.  It  is  easy,  for  instance,  to  make  the 
lump  rise  in  one's  throat  when  thinking  how 
Jacob  and  Joseph  met  at  Tel-el-Kebir.  It  is 
easy  in  reading  about  Elijah,  to  put  yourself  in 
his  place  in  his  indignant  wrath  against  Ahab 
at  Naboth's  field,  or  in  his  mocking  exultation 
over  the  prophets  of  Baal.  It  is  easy  to  feel  the 
pathos  of  Moses'  farewell,  to  put  yourself  in 
the  place  of  Deborah  in  the  joy  of  her  triumph, 
or  of  the  big,  mischievous  giant  with  the  gates 
of  Gaza  on  his  back,  laughing  at  the  surprise  of 
the  outwitted  Philistines.  The  historical  books 
of  the  Old  and  New  Testament  are  full  of  such 
scenes,  and  any  man  who  will  exercise  his 
imaginative  faculty  has  material  for  the  most 

73 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon 

vivid  pictures.  But  what  I  desire  to  emphasise 
is,  that  not  only  here,  but  all  through  the  Bible 
it  is  possible  to  add  a  keen  interest  to  your  read- 
ing by  this  effort  to  "put  yourself  in  his  place." 
Think,  for  instance,  in  the  early  prophecies  of 
Isaiah  of  a  vacillating  king  and  an  evil-living 
people,  of  the  rumours  in  the  city  of  approach- 
ing invasion,  and  the  solemn  sight  of  the 
prophet  in  his  haircloth  robe  proclaiming  the 
Divine  message  that  burned  within  him.  In 
the  Gospels  try  to  enter  into  the  feelings  of  the 
formalist  Pharisees  and  the  jealous  scribes  and 
the  ignorant  people  from  the  slums  of  Jeru- 
salem, and  above  all  of  the  great  loving,  sym- 
pathising heart  of  Him  Who  understood  them 
all.  Try  as  you  preach  the  epistles  of  St.  Paul 
to  put  yourself  in  the  place  of  the  writer,  with 
his  sensitive,  highly-strung  nature,  now  glad, 
now  despondent,  now  vexed  and  dissatisfied  at 
the  conduct  of  some  church,  but  always  with 
every  thought  full  of  loving  loyalty  to  his 
Master. 

But  I  have  said  I  am  thinking  mainly  of  the 
intellectual  grip,  the  clear,  sharp  gripping  of 
the  ideas   which   lie   behind   the   words   and 

74 


The  Quality  of  ''Gnp" 

phrases  that  we  use.  It  is  the  great  defect  of 
us  theologians — we  do  not  think  out  vigorously 
and  clearly,  and  the  consequence  is  a  vagueness 
and  haziness  and  a  cultivating  of  platitudes, 
which  takes  all  the  interest  and  grip  out  of  our 
sermons.  Do  you  remember  Mephistopheles' 
advice  to  Faust  in  the  play,  "Busy  yourself  with 
words.  Do  not  trouble  yourself  about  things." 
Yes,  that  is  it.  Do  not  trouble  yourself  about 
things.  That  has  been  the  devil's  advice  to 
theologians  since  theology  began.  There  are 
tremendously  and  magnificently  grand  things 
behind  the  words  and  phrases  which  we  use, 
things  full  of  awe  and  mystery  and  absorbing 
interest.  But  we  do  not  get  hold  of  them.  We 
pay  ourselves  off  with  words,  as  with  counters 
in  a  game.  So  we  feel  vague  and  hazy,  we 
clergy,  and  our  sermons  become  vague  and 
hazy  and  fail  to  take  hold.  I  used  to  think  in 
my  early  ministry  that  it  was  only  the  young 
clergy  that  felt  thus  vague  and  hazy,  until  I 
began  to  attend  clerical  meetings  and  to  ask 
definite  questions,  when  I  found,  to  my  sur- 
prise, and  perhaps  to  my  comfort,  that  the 
minds  of  some  of  my  elder  brethren  were  not 
so  pellucidly  clear  either  on  the  great  questions 
that  they  taught.    We  have  not  sufficiently  ac- 

7S 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermoii 

quired  the  habit  of  gripping  firmly  and  seeing 
clearly  the  great  ideas  which  lie  behind  the  re- 
ligious words  and  phrases  which  we  use.  It  is 
only  by  degrees  this  dawns  on  some  of  us.  I 
honestly  think  that  we  have  no  conception  of 
the  interest  and  enthusiasm  and  wonder,  that 
we  should  get  in  our  religious  teaching  if  we 
only  got  to  the  reality  of  it;  that  we  have  no 
conception  of  the  loss  to  Christian  men  and 
women  through  careless  thinking,  through  hazi- 
ness and  woolliness  of  mind,  through  not  try- 
ing to  grip  firmly  and  see  clearly  the  great  ideas 
that  lie  behind  the  words  and  phrases  which  we 
use  in  the  pulpit. 

§3 

You  see  what  I  mean?  Take,  for  example, 
"the  Gospel."  If  I  ask  any  Sunday-school 
child  the  meaning  of  the  word,  he  will  say, 
good  news,  something  to  make  people  glad. 
Now  does  it  always  convey  that  meaning?  I 
doubt  it  very  gravely.  If  a  man  who  had  never 
heard  of  Christianity  were  to  learn  the  Gospel 
first  from  the  preaching  in  some  of  our 
churches,  I  fear  he  would  not  be  much  im- 
pressed with  the  goodness  or  gladness  of  it. 
The  word  has  got  so  dulled  and  rounded  by 

76 


The  Quality  of  ''Grip" 

much  use  that  the  sharp  edges  have  got  rubbed 
off  it.  It  has  become  so  hackneyed  and  covered 
over  with  commonplace  and  platitude,  that  the 
idea  of  good  news,  glad,  joyous,  inspiriting 
news,  does  not  usually  strike  one  at  all,  and 
people  listen  to  Gospels  that  are  by  no  means 
good  news  or  glad  news.  Gospels  utterly  in- 
capable of  stirring  their  pulses  and  gladdening 
their  hearts.  I  think  if  you  dropped  the  word 
''Gospel"  for  a  while  and  used  only  the  word 
''good  news"  you  might  sharpen  up  and  put 
interest  into  the  word,  and  keep  yourselves 
from  believing  some  very  stupid  things  that  are 
called  Gospel  to-day. 

I  remember  a  description  of  the  Christian 
Gospel  by  a  non-Christian  writer,  sneering  at 
Christianity.  He  pictures  a  missionary  teach- 
ing a  poor  Chinaman.  "The  Gospel  means, 
first  of  all,  you  are  a  sinner  and  radically  cor- 
rupt and  evil,  and  therefore  justly  exposed  to 
the  wrath  of  God  and  everlasting  punishment. 
That  is  the  first  part  of  the  Christian  Gospel." 
"Well  now,"  says  the  poor  Chinaman,  "if  the 
Gospel  means  good  news,  I  don't  think  that  is 
good  news.  It  is  news,  certainly,  but  I  don't 
think  it  is  good  news."  "But,"  says  the 
preacher,  "the  Gospel  is  more  than  that.    God 

77 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon 

offers  you  forgiveness  and  happiness.  If  you 
believe  in  the  Atonement  and  in  certain  other 
doctrines,  and  love  God,  and  repent  of  your 
sins,  God  will  take  you  to  Heaven.  If  not,  He 
will  put  you  into  everlasting-  torment,  where 
you  will  live  in  infinite  agony  and  infinite  sin 
for  ever  and  ever  and  ever."  "I  don't  think," 
replies  the  poor  Chinaman,  "that  that  is  at  all 
good  news,  for,  perhaps,  I  cannot  believe  these 
things,  or  love  this  God  who  is  going,  perhaps, 
to  do  these  terrible  things  to  me.  That  Gospel 
of  yours  is  news,  certainly,  but  it  does  not  seem 
to  me  to  be  very  good  news." 

As  I  read  this  parody  of  the  Gospel  I  could 
not  help  feeling  that  it  is  not  so  very  much 
exaggerated.  The  popular  notion  of  the  Gos- 
pel amongst  our  lay  people  is  often  rather  like 
that.  Fancy  any  one  calling  that  good  news! 
or  thinking  that  was  the  glad  tidings  of  great 
joy  which  made  the  angels  burst  through 
Heaven  at  Christmastide.  Surely,  if  people 
would  grip  the  idea  of  glad  news  the  absurdity 
of  such  Gospels  would  strike  them  at  once,  and 
they  would  try  to  find  out  what  men  had  to  be 
so  glad  about. 

The  "Gospel,"  rightly  understood,  is  full  of 
grip,  full  of  the  power  of  rousing  enthusiasm 

78 


The  Quality  of  ''Grip" 

and  awe  and  mystery  and  deep  absorbing  in- 
terest. I  say  it,  unhesitatingly  looking  com- 
mon-sense men  in  the  face,  that  no  speakers 
have  such  rousing  subjects  as  we  have,  that  no 
study  has  a  tithe  of  the  interest  that  is  in  the 
full,  fearless  presentation  of  the  whole  Gospel 
of  Christ.  When  you  grip  the  ideas  that  lie 
behind  the  words,  then  only  you  get  a  full 
Gospel.  But  that  full  Gospel,  throbbing  with 
mystery  and  awe,  and  interest  and  joyous  en- 
thusiasm, requires  thinking  and  studying,  and 
a.  determination  to  get  at  realities,  and  a  big 
fearless  faith  in  God.  It  does  not  lie  on  the 
surface  for  conventional  makers  of  platitudes 
to  find  it.  You  must  think,  and  muse,  and  med- 
itate, and  be  alone  with  God,  and  let  your 
mind  and  your  soul  and  your  heart  play  over 
the  teaching  till  it  glows  and  becomes  alive  and 
grips  hold  of  3^ou. 

§4 

Take  another  example.  A  preacher  is 
preaching  on  the  text,  "God  is  love."  It  does 
not  rouse  him  in  the  least,  it  has  become  so 
hackneyed,  so  covered  over  with  commonplace 
platitudes,  that  it  has  no  power  over  him.  It 
has  become  too  rounded;  it  does  not  grip  him, 

79 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon 

and  does  not  grip  his  people.  But  some  day, 
like  an  inspiration,  it  catches  him,  and  he  never 
more  can  preach  platitudes  about  it  again. 

His  little  sick  boy  is  on  his  knee,  and  he  fears 
the  little  lad  may  die.  Is  there  anything-,  he 
thinks,  that  I  would  not  do  to  save  that  little 
boy?  Is  there  anything  I  would  not  do  for  his 
good,  if  he  recovers?  In  this  life  I  would 
work  night  and  day  for  him.  In  "that"  life  I 
would  go  into  the  outer  darkness  for  ever  for 
him,  if  it  would  save  my  little  lad  from  going" 
there.  If  he  went  wrong  my  love  for  him 
would  make  me  punish  him,  ay,  perhaps  pun- 
ish him  terribly — but  if  love  and  punishment 
failed  I  think  my  heart  would  break.  "O  God," 
he  thinks,  *'how  life  here  and  hereafter  would 
be  one  endless  pain,  how  Heaven  would  be 
absolutely  useless  to  me  if  that  little  boy  were 
lost  at  the  last." 

Slowly  and  fully  he  lets  that  thought  grip 
him,  and  then  he  wonderingly  repeats  to  him- 
self the  little  Creed  that  Christ  has  taught, 
"If  ye  then  being  evil  know  how  to  care  thus 
for  your  children,  how  much  more  does  the 
Heavenly  Father."  And  in  a  moment  the  rev- 
elation has  flashed  on  him.  He  asks  himself: 
"Is  that  the  meaning  of  the  love  of  God;  does 

80 


The  Quality  of  "Gnp" 

it  mean  a  vivid,  real,  palpitating  thing  like  my 
love  for 'my  boy?  Does  it  mean  that  He  feels 
and  cares  and  suffers  for  the  little  chap  as  I  do 
— ay,  that  He  must  suffer  for  ever  if  He  lose 
that  boy?  If  I,  being  evil,  must  suffer,  how 
much  more  must  God  ?  Is  the  pain  in  my  heart, 
which  would  make  me  go  to  hell  itself  to  save 
my  child,  but  a  faint  reflection  of  the  eternal 
pain  in  the  heart  of  the  Good  Shepherd  which 
sends  him  out  for  ever  on  the  desolate  moun- 
tains seeking  that  which  is  lost  until  He  find 
it  ?"  Perhaps  he  may  not  believe  in  such  love  of 
God,  but,  at  any  rate,  he  sees  the  meaning  of  it. 
It  has  gripped  him.  He  knows  the  meaning 
now.  "If  it  does  not  mean  the  feelings  that  I 
have  in  my  heart  when  I  am  thinking  of  my 
little  boy's  future  I  do  not  know  what  it  means. 
But  oh !  if  it  does  mean  that — that  God  actually 
does  care  and  suffer,  and  by  the  necessity  of 
His  nature  must  for  ever  care  and  suffer  like 
that — then  nothing  in  the  whole  world  matters 
in  comparison  with  it.  It  is  good  to  be  alive  in 
spite  of  all  our  troubles,  good  for  me,  good  for 
my  boy,  good  for  every  poor  child  of  man; 
however  awful  may  be  the  penalty  of  his 
wrong-doing,  God  cares!  By  the  necessity  of 
His  nature  He  must  for  ever  care! 

8i 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon 

"God's  in  His  Heaven, 
All's  right  with  the  world." 

Ah!  he  knows  the  meaning  now.  His  face 
is  flushing-,  his  eyes  are  brightening  with  it. 
That  man  will  preach  no  more  dull  platitudes 
about  the  love  of  God.  His  sermon  on  the  love 
of  God  will  grip  next  time. 

§5 

(i)  Another  example.  I  suppose  if  I  were 
to  put  the  question  now  to  you  all,  what  is  the 
first  and  chief  est  subject  that  you  must  preach? 
you  would  reply,  ''Christ;  we  must  preach 
Christ."  Surely  yes.  And  yet — and  yet — 
surely  there  must  be  right  and  wrong  ways  of 
preaching  Christ;  a  way  that  will  grip  men, 
and  a  way  that  will  leave  them  listless.  Whilst 
writing  this  lecture  I  asked  a  thoughtful  lay 
friend,  whose  opinion  about  sermons  I  greatly 
value,  What  would  you  expect  if  you  were  told 
of  a  certain  preacher's  subject  next  Sunday  that 
he  was  going  to  preach  Christ?  "I  should 
expect  a  rather  stupid  sermon,"  was  the  prompt 
reply.  And,  I  fear,  there  was  in  my  friend's 
experience  some  reason  for  the  reply.  I  fear 
I   have  heard  a  good   many  men  preaching 

82 


The  Quality  of  "Gnp" 

Christ,  without  being  very  much  interested  by 
them.  But  on  the  day  of  that  reply  I  had  been 
reading  a  story  of  the  days  of  Gustavus 
Adolphus,  of  Sweden.  The  writer  had  not 
concealed  his  faults,  but  he  made  me  admire 
and  love  him  in  spite  of  them.  He  made  me 
feel  angry  with  the  nobles  who  thwarted  him, 
and  almost  lonely  for  the  moment  as  I  read  of 
the  poor  king's  death.  The  writer  did  not  make 
any  demand  for  my  love  or  admiration  of  the 
king.  He  just  simply  presented  him  to  me  as 
he  appeared  to  his  own  enthusiasm — and  thus 
he  won  me  to  him.  I  think  something  like  that 
must  be  the  meaning  of  preaching  Christ.  I 
wish  I  were  capable  of  preaching  Him  thus* 
Some  men  are.  I  want  you  to  be.  I  want  you, 
at  any  rate,  to  see  that  to  preach  about  His  life 
and  His  Atonement  platitudes  that  rouse  no 
enthusiasm,  and  sentiments  that  you  do  not  feel 
deeply  yourself,  is  not  preaching  Christ,  that 
to  tell  people  they  ought  to  love,  and  be  touched 
by  this  love  and  self-sacrifice,  is  but  whipping 
up  their  feelings  as  you  would  whip  up  a  dead 
horse.  You  must  just  present  Christ,  and  leave 
your  picture  to  rouse  enthusiasm.  But  you 
cannot  do  that  without  feeling  enthusiasm 
yourself.    You  cannot  grip  your  hearers  unless 

83 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon 

Christ  has  gripped  you.  The  personal  Christ 
must  be  real  to  you.  You  must  have  thought 
and  meditated  on  Him  till  He  has  grown  to  be 
very  real  to  you.  You  must  study  Him  and 
think  of  Him  till  you  can  make  men  feel  that 
He  is  as  near,  and  as  much  alive,  as  when  men 
of  old  heard  His  voice  and  looked  into  His 
eyes.  That  He  is  still  the  very  Christ  who  took 
that  little  boy  on  His  knee  long  ago,  and  grew 
stern  and  indignant  at  the  thought  of  one 
tempting  that  child — the  very  Christ  who  made 
excuses  for  His  sleeping  disciples  at  Geth- 
semane,  and  looked  for  the  good  in  every  one 
around  Him;  who  even  saw,  as  He  looked  at 
the  howling  mob  on  Calvary,  that  some  of  them 
would  be  sorry  by  and  by,  and  remembered  that 
they  were  half  mad  with  excitement — remem- 
bered, doubtless,  that  many  of  them  had  often 
been  kind  to  their  friends  and  little  children. 
"They  are  mad  with  excitement,"  He  thought; 
"Father,  forgive  them,  for  they  do  not  know 
just  now  what  they  are  doing." 

Try  to  make  His  character  real  to  yourself, 
as  my  author  did  with  that  poor,  faulty  Swedish 
king.  For  some  of  us  it  will  take  years  to  do  it, 
but  we  cannot  otherwise  preach  Christ,  so  that 

84 


The  Quality  of  "Grip" 

the  subject  will  grip,  so  that  people  will  long  to 
come  to  Him. 

§6 

Take  another  subject.  Any  man  who  reads 
up  theological  books  about  it  can  preach  about 
the  Holy  Communion,  and  the  people  can  listen 
quietly  and  go  home,  and  the  altar-rails  can 
remain  deserted  as  before.  But  wait  till  some 
day  when  the  subject  has  gripped  him — gripped 
him.  He  has  had  to  stop  talking  convention- 
ally— he  has  had  to  go  down  to  the  reality  be- 
neath the  words.  It  is  easy  to  preach  cold, 
correct  theology  about  "the  Body  and  Blood  of 
Christ,  which  are  verily  and  indeed  taken  and 
received,"  etc.  But  when  a  man  refuses  to 
play  any  longer  with  words,  as  if  they  were 
counters,  and  wants  to  get  down  to  the  realities 
underneath  the  words.  When  he  demands  of 
himself,  "What  is  the  thing  which  these  words 
imply?  What  do  I  mean?  Is  it  something 
real?  Is  there  in  any  real  sense  a  communi- 
cating of  the  nature  of  Christ  Himself  to  a 
man  in  that  Sacrament?  Is  there,  next  Sunday 
morning,  going  to  take  place  in  my  simple  little 
church  a  stupendous  miracle?  Will  the  living 
Christ  be  actually  present,  invisible  as  when 

8s 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon 

He  stood  by  the  Magdalen  in  the  Easter  dawn, 
as  when  He  stood  unseen  with  the  disciples  in 
the  upper-room  ?  Is  this  thrilling  thing  true  or 
is  it  not  true?"  Is  it  true  that  in  that  sacrament 
the  life  of  Christ  passes  into  the  life  of  men  as 
when  in  transfusion  of  blood  the  lifeblood  of  a 
virile  man  passes  into  the  veins  of  an  anaemic 
patient?  I  do  not  just  now  want  to  advocate 
High  views  or  Low  views  about  the  Sacra- 
ments. I  want  now  only  to  plead  for  deep 
views — deep,  reaching  down  and  gripping  for 
some  reality  underneath  the  words.  But  I 
think  that  never  more  will  the  Holy  Com- 
munion be  an  uninteresting  thing  in  that  man's 
preaching.  Never  more  will  the  Holy  Table  be 
deserted  in  that  Church* 

§7 

There  are  hosts  of  other  subjects. 

Have  you  cleared  your  mind  about  conscience 
and  its  authority,  and  the  startling  fact  that 
all  over  the  world  to-day  from  the  Mississippi 
to  the  Ganges,  from  the  Arctic  to  the  Equator, 
no  man  is  found  without  the  sense  of  right  and 
wrong,  without  the  Divine  imperative  of  the 

86 


The  Quality  of  ''Grip'* 

"ought"  and  "ought  not"  which  stamps  him 
indeHbly  as  belonging  to  God. 

Have  you  cleared  your  mind  about  its  rela- 
tion to  Scripture,  and  what  men  are  to  do  if 
conscience  and  Scripture  seem  to  come  into 
collision  with  each  other  ?  The  man  in  the  pew 
has  been  thinking  a  gooddeal  about  that,  when 
he  has  had  to  take  his  part  in  the  Imprecatory 
Psalms.  In  fact,  the  man  in  the  pew  has  been 
thinking  about  a  good  many  other  things  of 
late  since  the  War  time,  and  especially  in  the 
city  parishes  he  is  expecting  that  his  clergy 
should  have  some  clearer  acquaintance  with  the 
relations  of  dogmatic  theology  to  the  religious 
questions  that  are  in  the  air.  He  is  greatly 
interested  just  now  about  death  and  the  here- 
after. They  used  to  be  dull  and  uninteresting 
subjects  in  our  preaching.  Not  so  now.  The 
man  in  the  pew  wants  to  know  if  the  moment 
of  death  fixes  a  man's  destiny  and  stereotypes 
his  state  for  all  eternity.  The  woman  in  the 
pew  wants  to  know  if  you  think  her  careless 
boy,  who  was  killed  by  a  German  bullet,  is 
damned,  or  if  there  is  such  a  thing  as  hope 
after  death.  She  wants  to  know  how  any 
woman  could  enjoy  a  happy  heaven  while  any 
human  being  belonging  to  her  is  in  hell.     Oh, 

87 


[  The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon 

the  torture  and  eagerness  I  have  seen  in  people 
who  have  been  asking  me  these  questions.  It 
is  not  my  province  here  to  answer  such  ques- 
tions for  you.  But  it  certainly  is  my  province 
to  insist  that  you  must  not  play  with  words- 
here.  You  must  go  to  the  realities,  and  try  to 
"find  some  answer,  to  form  some  opinion  for 
yourself.  Your  power  of  grip  in  your  preach- 
ing about  it  depends  on  this. 

Have  you  ever  realised  the  enthralling  in- 
terest than  can  attach  to  a  sermon  on  the  Inter- 
mediate Life?  The  life  of  the  waiting  soul 
before  the  Judgment.  The  Bible  teaches  us 
that  no  man  has  ever  yet  gone  to  heaven;  no 
man  has  ever  yet  gone  to  hell.  All  who  ever 
lived  on  earth  are  waiting,  still,  waiting  the 
coming  of  the  day  of  God.  Have  you  thought 
much  about  that  waiting  life  which  is  so  much 
in  men's  thoughts  now!  Have  you  realised 
what  a  great  deal  can  be  learned  about  it? 
How  could  any  man  think  of  such  things  with- 
out wonder  and  excitement !  Is  there  any  novel 
ever  written,  so  full  of  wondrous  interest  as 
the  thought  of  that  world  full  of  the  great 
saints  and  heroes,  and  the  dear  ones  who  are 
neither  saints  nor  heroes,  that  have  lately  gone 
away  from  us.     There  are  men  for  whom  a 

88 


The  Quality  of  "Grif 

great  sorrow  has  forced  open  the  doors  of  that 
unseen  land,  and  they  have  been  holding  them 
open  ever  since  for  their  people.  They  have 
been  reading,  and  studying,  and  thinking,  and 
in  some  little  degree  teaching  wherever  they 
could  find  any  firm  Scriptural  foothold  to  go 
upon.  That  there  is  no  death.  That  Death 
means  but  birth  into  a  larger  life.  That  as  the 
baby's  eyes  open  from  the  darkness  of  the 
womb  to  sunlight  in  this  world  so  do  the  eyes 
that  have  closed  in  the  darkness  of  death  open 
on  "a  light  that  never  was  on  sea  or  land." 
And  it  has  revolutionised  life  for  them.  And 
it  has  opened  the  hearts  of  poor  bereaved  ones 
in  their  parishes  who  had  no  one  to  talk  to 
them  about  the  life  in  the  unseen.  The  fact 
is,  it  has  gripped  them,  and  will  not  let  them 
go,  and  when  they  preach  on  that  particular 
subject  which  has  gripped  them  so  strongly, 
they  can  certainly  grip  the  people.  They  can 
make  them  listen. 

So  men  preach  dull  sermons,  or  weak  ser- 
mons, or  irritating  sermons  about  the  Church 
because  they  have  not  realised  to  themselves 
that  great  central  enthusiasm  of  Christ  about 
His  ''Kingdom  of  God"  on  earth.  His  very 
first  sermon  was  about  it ;  His  very  last  words 

89 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon 

before  the  Ascension  were  about  it.  All  his 
parables  were  illustrations  of  it.  It  seemed  to 
fill  up  His  outlook  into  the  future.  No  man 
can  realise  that  without  growing  deeply  inter- 
ested, without  feeling  how  impossible  it  is  to 
fully  preach  Christ  without  preaching  the 
Church. 

Such  illustrations  might  go  on  indefinitely, 
but  time  forbids.  Surely  I  have  said  enough  to 
show  you  the  vital  importance  of  gripping  down 
deep  for  the  realities  that  underlie  the  words 
and  phrases  which  you  are  using.  Get  the 
habit  of  doing  this.  And  get  the  habit  while 
you  are  young.  When  you  are  twenty  years  in 
orders  it  will  be  almost  impossible  to  begin. 
When  you  have  become  Canons  and  Deans  and 
Archdeacons  you  will  be  "past  praying  for." 

§8 

The  first  requisite  in  thus  gripping  the  reali- 
ties is  more  labour  in  thinking  out  the  truths 
which  God  has  revealed  to  us.  And  here  let 
me  add  a  further  requisite,  more  courage  in 
speaking  out  these  truths  when  we  have  found 
them.    For  this  is  important  for  the  deepening 

90 


The  Quality/  of  ''Gnp'' 

of  your  own  grip  as  well  as  for  its  value  in  the 
instruction  of  your  people. 

The  lack  of  this  courage  in  speaking  out  is 
responsible  for  a  good  deal  of  uninteresting 
preaching.  Yet  I  would  rather  you  learned 
this  a  little  later  on.  The  picture  flashes  on  me 
of  the  bumptious  young  preacher  who  thinks  a 
little,  or  thinks  that  he  thinks,  and  insists  on 
being  courageous  and  original  and  a  superior 
fellow  altogether,  and  so  becomes  a  nuisance, 
with  his  crude,  undigested  theories.  I  beseech 
you  again,  be  very  humble  and  modest  and 
reverent  in  seeking  God's  truth,  *T  beseech 
you,"  said  Cromwell  to  some  of  his  Ironside 
preachers,  "I  beseech  you  by  the  tender  mercies 
of  God,  to  believe  that  you  may  sometimes  be 
mistaken."  For  your  first  five  years  do  not  try 
to  be  ^'courageous"  or  "original."  You  have 
two  eyes  and  two  ears  and  only  one  tongue. 
Read  a  great  deal,  listen  to  your  elders  a  great 
deal,  speak  little.  But  when  you  are  older, 
when  you  have  made  certain  of  a  truth,  when 
you  know  that  all  Bible  students  worthy  the 
name  are  with  you,  when  you  hear  that  truth 
acknowledged  at  clerical  meetings  as  an  esoteric 
truth,  that  it  would  not  be  safe  to  teach  people 
at  present,  then  if  you  believe  that  that  truth 

91 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon 

will  help  the  struggling  and  comfort  the  be- 
reaved and  solemnise  the  communicant,  ask 
God's  help  that  you  may  not — 

"in  silence  shrink 
From  the  truth  you  needs  must  think." 

And  a  rich  reward  will  come  to  you  In  the 
delight  of  your  preaching  and  in  the  gratitude 
of  your  best  people. 

But  you  will  have  many  temptations  to  hold 
your  tongue.  You  will  find  that  some  of  your 
people  do  not  want  to  be  made  think.  You  will 
have  some  of  them  calling  you  High  Church, 
or  Broad  Church,  if  you  put  thoughts  before 
them  that  they  have  not  been  accustomed  to, 
e.g.,  if  you  present  realities,  not  mere  words, 
about  the  Sacraments,  the  Church,  the  Future 
Life,  the  love  and  the  pain  of  God  for  men. 
And  perhaps  some  people  will  whisper  that  you 
are  not  quite  a  "safe  man,"  which  is  a  very  ter- 
rible accusation  in  some  parts  of  the  Church. 
We  have  a  great  deal  too  much  of  this  "safe- 
ness"  in  our  day;  I  heartily  wish  we  had  less 
of  it;  it  is  a  great  source  of  weakness  to  the 
Church,  and  our  most  thoughtful  laymen  are 
getting  sick  of  it  already.  There  is  a  certain 
sort  of  "safe  man,"  who  will  always  be  hon- 

92 


The  Quality  of  "Grip" 

oured — the  wise,  calm,  thoughtful  pastor,  who 
thinks  deeply  and  speaks  fearlessly,  but  speaks 
always  tactfully  and  avoids  obnoxious  phrases 
in  his  teaching  of  deep  truths.  But  alas,  the 
''safe  man"  too  commonly  means  the  man  who 
does  not  think,  and  does  not  make  anybody  else 
think,  who  has  never  stood  on  the  unpopular 
side,  and  never  taught  an  unpopular  doctrine. 
We  have  a  great  deal  too  many  such.  God 
keep  you  young  men  from  that  contemptible 
ambition  of  being  a  "safe  man,"  clipping  and 
trimming  the  full  Gospel  of  Christ.  You  are 
not  being  ordained  for  that ;  you  are  not  being 
commissioned  for  that.  You  are  to  be  sent 
out  from  this  place  as  Christ's  ambassadors,  to 
preach  to  men,  at  any  cost,  "the  whole  counsel 
of  God." 


93 


Lecture  V 
PREPARING  THE  SERMON 


Lecture  V 
PREPARING  THE  SERMON 

Our  subject  to-day  is  the  "Preparation  of  the 
Sermon" — I  mean  the  special  preparation  of 
the  special  sermon  to  be  preached  on  the  fol- 
lowing Sunday.  In  a  sense — and  a  very  real 
sense — all  that  I  have  said  to  you  up  to  this 
has  been  "on  the  preparation  of  the  sermon." 
I  have  tried  to  show  you  that  the  first  process, 
the  foundation  of  all  sermon  preparation,  is  the 
preparation  of  the  preacher  himself,  the  mak- 
ing- and  training-  and  disciplining  of  a  man  fit 
to  be  a  vehicle  of  God's  Truth  to  his  fellows. 
That  will  be  for  you  the  work  of  a  lifetime; 
and  God  will  do  a  great  deal  of  it  for  you  apart 
from  your  intention  altogether.  To  me  it  is 
touching  to  look  in  your  faces  to-day ;  to  think 
of  the  true  hearts  amongst  you  of  whom  God 
will  make  His  faithful  preachers  in  the  future ; 
to  think  of  all  that  God's  life  preparation  must 
mean  to  you,  of  steady,  patient  struggle  after 
communion  with  God,  of  prayer  and  penitence, 

97 


The  Preacher  dnd  His  Sermon 

o£  bitter  dissatisfaction  with  yourself  and  your 
efforts:  perhaps  of  keen,  agonising  discipHne, 
of  sorrow  to  get  you  into  full  sympathy  with 
the  people  you  are  to  help;  but  also  of  the 
gladness  and  hopefulness,  of  the  joy  of  success 
in  helping  men,  of  eager  aspirations,  of  flashes 
of  enthusiasm  for  right,  and  of  joyful  insight 
into  the  boundless,  unutterable  love  of  God — 
all  the  strange,  tender,  thrilling  experiences 
which,  to  every  true  heart  amongst  you,  will 
be  God's  "preparation  for  the  sermon."  Yes, 
that  is  the  great  life-long  preparation. 

And  then,  too,  I  have  tried  to  show  you  that 
the  study  in  the  preparation  of  each  sermon  is 
also  lifelong.  All  the  wide  reading  of  a  life- 
time will  influence,'  in  some  degree,  every  ser- 
mon. All  your  study  of  Scripture,  of  theology, 
of  travel,  of  science;  even  the  thoughts  that 
have  been  roused  in  you  by  the  fiction  that  you 
have  read  to  rest  your  mind.  Every  Sunday 
sermon  will  be  the  better  or  the  worse  for  the 
reading  or  the  neglect  of  reading  in  your  pre- 
vious life.  I  beseech  you,  read,  read,  read. 
Hear  Dr.  Arnold:  "I  must  read.  I  will  not 
give  my  boys  to  drink  out  of  stagnant  water." 
Many  do  this.    So,  you  see,  the  preparation  for 

98 


Preparing  the  Sermon 

the  sermon  and  the  study  for  the  sermon  are 
Hfelong. 

But  now  I  am  thinking  of  the  special  sermon 
to  be  preached  on  the  next  Sunday.  And  the 
first  thoug-ht  that  comes  to  me  is,  "When  are 
you  going  to  prepare  it?"  I  am  assuming  all 
through  these  lectures  that  I  have  to  deal  with 
serious,  earnest  men.  I  assume  that  I  have  no 
need  of  telling  you  not  to  let  your  sermon  lie 
over  to  the  end  of  the  week,  and  then  rush  on 
Saturday  to  commentaries  and  books  of  ser- 
mons to  get  together  a  crude,  undigested  dis- 
course which  will  get  you  somehow  over  the 
Sunday.  No  serious  man  who  realises  the 
meaning  of  preaching  needs  to  be  warned 
against  that. 

Your  sermon  must  be  running  through  your 
mind  during  the  whole  week,  however  busy 
otherwise  you  may  be.  You  may  tell  me  that 
this  is  but  a  counsel  of  perfection ;  that  in  the 
present  rush  of  parish  work  that  cannot  be 
done.  I  do  not  believe  it.  There  is  too  much 
fussy  talk  of  this  kind  amongst  clergy.  There 
is  no  rush  of  parish  work  anywhere  such  as 
would  prevent  the  due  preparation  of  your 

99 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon 

sermon  and  it  will  be  only  your  own  indolence 
and  want  of  system  that  will  make  you 
imagine  that  there  is.  If  you  are  willing-  to 
do  your  work  as  systematically  and  punctually 
as  the  business  men  in  your  parish,  there  will 
be  no  difficulty.  But  if  you  get  up  at  half-past 
eight,  and  breakfast  at  half-past  nine,  and 
read  the  paper  and  idle  about  till  half-past  ten, 
and  have  petty  parish  interruptions  till  half- 
past  eleven,  you  have  no  right  to  talk  about  the 
pressure  of  duties  and  the  want  of  time  for 
sermon  preparation.  I  have  warned  you  before 
of  this  habit.  It  is  the  ruin  of  half  the  young 
clergy.  To  the  man  who  indulges  in  it  and 
spoils  his  sermons  I  can  only  say,  and  very 
sternly,  that  he  is  sinning  deliberately  against 
God,  and  some  day,  when  his  eyes  are  opened, 
will  bitterly  repent  of  it.  I  do  not  think  any 
other  set  of  men  waste  their  time  as  much  as 
we  clergy  do,  nor  talk  as  much  about  the  many 
interruptions  and  the  many  engagements  that 
prevent  their  being  hard  students.  Whenever 
I  hear  a  man,  at  any  rate  outside  the  busy  cen- 
tres, talk  like  that,  I  feel  pretty  sure  that  that 
man  is  wasting  his  time,  and  has  no  fixed,  punc- 
tual, systematic  habits  of  work.  You  have  no 
right  to  work  less  hours  in  the  day  than  a  hard- 

lOO 


Preparing  the  Sermon 

worked  business  man  works.  You  have  no 
right  to  be  less  punctual  and  systematic  in  your 
work. 

Settle  it  with  yourselves  that  the  supreme 
work  of  the  week  is  the  Sunday  sermon,  or 
sermons.  I  do  not  want  you  to  make  light  of 
visiting,  or  classes,  or  all  the  other  engage- 
ments. You  should  have  plenty  of  time  for 
them  all  if  you  are  systematic.  If  not  let  some 
of  them  go.  But  you  must  see  for  yourself  that 
no  other  such  opportunity  can  come  to  you  as 
that  Sunday  hour  when  a  large  number  of 
people  of  all  sorts  come  together  and  will  sit 
still  and  listen  for  twenty  minutes  to  the  very 
best  you  can  give  them.  Fancy  any  man  wast- 
ing his  time  during  the  week  and  then  daring 
to  stand  up  in  the  presence  of  God  and  of  that 
congregation  to  preach  a  poor,  unhelpful,  un- 
interesting sermon ! 

I  feel  very  sternly  about  this,  for  it  is  my 
own  temptation.  So  I  repeat  to  you  again,  you 
must  work;  you  must  plod  systematically  at 
your  sermons,  with  the  grain  and  against  the 
grain,  in  the  mood  and  out  of  the  mood.  I 
used  to  imagine  in  my  younger  days  that  I 
could  do  no  good  at  my  sermon  when  I  was 
out  of  the  mood  for  it.    And,  no  doubt,  it  was 

lOI 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon 

true  that  I  could  sometimes,  when  eager  and 
excited  about  my  subject,  do  more  and  better 
work  in  an  hour  than  I  could  at  another  time 
in  half  a  week.  But  I  learned  by  experience 
that  my  indolent  mind,  if  allowed  to  have  its 
own  way,  would  very  often  be  out  of  the  mood. 
I  believe  even  our  novelists  and  writers  of 
books  in  which  mood  means  a  great  deal,  have 
come  to  the  same  conclusion  and  found  that  a 
man,  to  do  real  good  work  in  his  study,  must 
go  to  it  and  plod  at  it  as  steadily  as  the  man 
breaking  stones  on  the  road. 

How  much  time  should  you  give  to  study 
and  preparation  for  your  sermon  ?  Three  hours 
a  day,  if  you  are  in  a  busy  parish,  not  neces- 
sarily all  at  once.  In  the  country  considerably 
more.  I  think  the  people  in  the  quiet  country 
parishes  ought  to  be  in  the  most  enviable  posi- 
tion in  the  whole  Church.  They  should  get  the 
most  interesting  and  thoughtful  and  well- 
prepared  sermons.  A  man  in  a  quiet  village 
who  is  willing  to  give  nine  hours  a  day  to  his 
work,  could  easily  give  five  to  the  Sunday  ser- 
mons. I  know  quite  well  all  that  is  against 
him — the  depression,  the  small  numbers,  the 
want  of  that  quick  friction  of  mind  with  mind 
which  keeps  the  town  man  at  pleasant  high 

102 


Preparing  the  Sermon 

pressure  and  makes  speaking  and  writing  eas- 
ier to  him.  But,  all  the  same,  I  say  to  you 
whose  lot  will  lie  in  the  country  village,  you 
ought  to  preach  the  best  sermons  of  us  all.. 

Whatever  time  you  can  give,  let  it  be  at  the 
best  hours  of  the  day.  If  the  morning  is  your 
best  time,  do  not  fritter  it  away  by  answering 
your  morning  letters.  They  can  be  done  at 
other  times.  If  there  are  too  many  other 
things  to  do — drop  some  of  these  other  things* 
I  think  some  of  our  parishes  would  be  the  bet- 
ter of  a  little  less  fussing  on  week  days,  and  a 
little  more  thought  and  work  at  the  sermon  for 
Sunday.  If  too  important  to  drop,  then  re- 
arrange them. 

Emphatically  I  say  to  you.  Get  up  early,  get 
your  best  hours  unbroken  at  your  sermon;  go 
at  it  punctually,  go  at  it  daily.  Avoid  inter- 
ruptions. I  have  somewhere  met  the  advice 
that,  if  necessary,  you  should  get  a  wife,  or  a 
cross  housekeeper,  or  a  big  dog,  or  something 
to  keep  interruptions  from  you.  In  my  last 
parish  I  put  a  notice  in  the  Parish  Magazine 
asking  that  no  one  should  call  on  me  without 
special  reason  between  nine  and  twelve  o'clock, 
and  it  had  a  very  good  effect. 


103 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon 

§2 

Happy  for  you  if  you  have  only  one  weekly 
sermon  to  prepare,  so  that  you  can  put  your 
best  into  it.  If  you  must  prepare  two  put  your 
best  into  one  of  them,  and  for  the  other  preach 
an  old  sermon  rewritten,  or  keep  an  easy  series, 
such  as  the  parables,  for  extempore  teaching, 
or  far  better,  keep  a  book  of  the  Bible,  to  be 
carefully  studied  at  the  evening  service  in  the 
way  that  I  have  already  suggested.  Very  few 
men  can  prepare  two  good  sermons  in  a  week, 
and  it  is  a  waste  of  power  to  prepare  two  poor 
sermons.  A  course  of  expository  teaching  is 
much  easier  to  prepare  than  a  second  sermon, 
and  probably  much  better  for  the  people. 

I  have  already  told  you  the  importance  of 
preaching  regularly  on  the  subjects  of  the 
Christian  year.  I  have  told  you  what  I  thought 
of  the  value  of  courses  of  sermons  and  of  ex- 
pository teaching,  and  not  the  least  of  the  ad- 
vantages is  that  they  will  help  to  set  you  free 
from  worrying  over  a  subject  for  Sunday.  You 
must  do  everything  you  can  to  keep  yourself 
from  that  worry.  I  recommend  to  you  Canon 
Liddon's  habit  of  reading  every  night  a  good 

104 


Preparing  the  Sermon 

printed  sermon.  That  would  suggest  many 
valuable  thoughts  and  very  frequently  suggest 
splendid  subjects  for  sermons.  I  recommend 
you  to  have  a  Bible  interleaved  with  blank 
pages  on  which  you  can  note  sermons  or  arti- 
cles bearing  on  certain  texts.  These  should 
help  your  sermon.  Only  the  sermon  must  be 
your  own  sermon  though  suggested  by  another. 
It  must  be  your  thoughts  passed  through  your 
personality.  I  think  it  is  quite  allowable  espe- 
cially in  your  younger  days  that  you  should 
take  hold  of  a  really  valuable  sermon  that  has 
interested  you  and  get  hold  of  its  leading 
thoughts  and  write  a  sermon  with  it  as  a  basis. 
When  a  thought  is  a  very  striking  one  acknowl- 
edge the  source  of  it.  But  generally  speaking 
published  thoughts  that  have  really  gripped  you 
have  thus  become  your  own  and  may  be  freely 
used.  Only,  for  you  own  soul's  sake  guard 
against  literary  dishonesty.  The  sermon  must 
express  your  thought  and  feeling.  It  must  be 
your  sermon.  To  avoid  all  mistakes  let  me  say 
here  once  for  all,  that  the  man  who  takes 
another  man's  sermon  into  the  pulpit  and  de- 
livers it  as  his  own  is  a  liar,  and  dishonest,  and 
utterly  unfit  for  the  sacred  office  of  the  min- 
istry. 

105 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon 

I  recommend  you  in  all  your  reading  to  keep 
a  book  of  "loose  leaf"  sheets  beside  you  to  jot 
down  your  thoughts  and  suggestions  for  ser- 
mons. As  you  read  your  daily  Bible  portion, 
with  a  good  commentary ;  as  you  read  the  ser- 
mons of  the  famous  sermon  writers;  as  you 
read  the  Church  papers,  the  daily  newspaper, 
the  novel,  in  your  idle  hour,  anything  and 
everything  you  read,  thoughts  and  suggestions 
will  come  to  you  which  should  be  jotted  down 
at  once.  Sometimes  the  whole  idea  of  a  sermon 
will  come  to  you.  Sometimes  separate  thoughts 
or  illustrations — jot  them  down  as  fully  as  you 
can,  with  a  title  across  the  top.  Keep  them  in 
a  drawer ;  go  over  them  regularly.  Sometimes 
several  of  them  will  go  together  and  form  a 
basis  for  a  sermon.  More  often  you  will  take 
up  one  suggested  by  some  sermon  or  book  that 
you  have  read,  and  you  will  find  some  of  your 
smaller  notes  will  come  in  as  additional 
thoughts  or  illustrations.  In  going  over  these 
sheets  continually  they  will  gradually  arrange 
themselves,  so  that  you  should  generally  have 
five  or  six  that  have  got  beyond  the  stage  of 
loose  notes,  and  are  showing  signs  that  they 
will  ultimately  grow  into  good  sermons.  I 
would  put  them  in  the  order  of  their  complete- 

io6 


Preparing  the  Sermon 

ness.  Those  that  were  fullest  and  most 
worked  out  should  be  on  the  top,  and  I  would 
make  a  rule,  in  cases  of  perplexity,  to  take  my 
top  sheet,  that  which  was  the  most  forward 
and  best  worked  out,  and  resolve  to  put  my 
best  into  that.  I  would  put  all  other  subjects 
aside,  and  waste  no  more  time  thinking.  You 
will  see  that  this  drawer  is  for  your  times  of 
perplexity  about  a  subject.  Do  not  let  these 
times  be  very  frequent.  Try  to  have  your  ser- 
mon plans  sketched  for  some  weeks  or  months 
to  come,  so  that  you  know  on  Monday  morning 
what  you  intend  to  preach. 

§3 
Now  then,  Monday  or  Tuesday  has  come, 
and  next  Sunday's  sermon  is  before  you.  Your 
first  business  is  to  choose  your  text,  or  to  choose 
your  subject.  For  myself  it  is  usually  a  sub- 
ject that  I  think  of,  and  then  I  find  a  text  to 
express  what  I  want  to  teach.  I  think  that  is 
a  very  natural  thing.  At  any  rate,  if  you  are 
to  preach  from  a  text,  be  sure  you  study  it 
carefully,  and  not  apart  from  its  context. 
Preachers  sometimes  preach  great  nonsense 
from  "texts."  Ruskin,  in  his  Ethics  of  the 
Dust,  hits  off  cleverly  the  way  that  some  men 

107 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon 

take  their  text  without  its  context.     He  says, 

i  "It  is  just  like  the  way  the  old  monks  thought 

I  that  hedgehogs  ate  grapes.    They  rolled  them- 

I  selves,  it  was  said,  over  and  over  where  the 

I  grapes  lay  on  the  ground.    Whatever  stuck  to 

their  spikes  they  carried  off  and  ate.     But," 

he  adds,  "you  can  only  get  the  skins  of  the  texts 

that  way;  if  you  want  their  juice  you  must 

press  them  in  cluster."     Think  of  the  whole 

trend  of  Bible  teaching  on  that  subject,  not 

merely  what  your  text  says.    Study  the  context 

carefully.    Be  sure  you  find  out  what  the  writer 

really  meant  who  wrote  your  text. 

And  in  this  connection  let  me  say  that,  except 
in  expository  sermons — which,  of  course,  ex- 
pound the  whole  passage — ^you  will  generally 
do  best  by  taking  one  important  thought  and 
hammering  it  out  on  every  side,  and  deter- 
mining to  get  that  one  thought  into  the  minds 
of  the  people.  There  may  be  little  subordinate 
thoughts  to  be  touched  in  passing  as  you  go  on. 
But  let  every  sermon  be  on  one  subject — one 
thought — so  that  you  could  write  in  one  sen- 
tence, "This  is  the  thought  that  I  want  to  im- 
press on  the  people ;  this  is  my  clear  aim ;  this  is 
exactly  what  I  want  them  to  feel;  or,  this  is 
exactly  what  I  want  them  to  do." 

io8 


Preparing  the  Sermon 

Never  write  a  sermon  in  which  you  have  not 
a  definite,  clear  aim.  I  have  heard  such  ser- 
mons carefully  prepared  and  eloquently  deliv- 
ered, too.  But  I  could  not  see  why  the  man 
preached  them.  I  could  see  no  purpose  in  them, 
except,  perhaps,  the  purpose  of  preaching-  a 
sermon.  One  would  think  no  man  would  be 
such  an  idiot  as  to  preach  without  any  definite 
purpose.  But  I  think  some  do.  It  is  as  if  a 
man  were  working  hard  with  wood  and  ham- 
mer and  nails,  and  when  you  ask  him  what  he  is 
working-  at — what  he  is  making — and  he 
should  say,  "I  am  not  quite  clear  about  it;  I  am 
only  hammering."  That  is  why  I  insist  on  your 
writing  for  me  at  the  beginning  of  every  ser- 
mon in  Hall,  writing  in  one  sentence  what  the 
man  in  the  pew  would  say  to  the  man  in  the 
street  in  telling  about  your  sermon. 

Never,  I  say,  write  a  sermon  in  which  it  is 
not  perfectly  clear  to  you  and  to  your  audience : 
''This  is  what  I  want  the  people  to  feel ;  this  is 
what  I  want  the  people  to  do." 

§4 

Now  you  have  got  your  subject.  What  next? 
I  don't  know.    It  depends  on  the  man  himself. 

109 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon 

Scarcely  any  two  men  work  the  same  way.  I 
can  give  you  some  hints  and  show  you  my  own 
way.  I  am  usually  told  that  the  first  thing  to 
do  is  to  think  out  your  subject  and  arrange  its 
separate  headings  and  the  line  on  which  it  will 
run.  That  looks  plausible.  But  for  myself  I 
seldom  do  it.  My  first  efifort  is  to  collect  mate- 
rial. I  never  try  to  arrange  it  until  after  I  have 
got  it.  And  such  queer  and  unexpected  things 
come  in  as  material  that  I  never  know  till  the 
end  of  my  collecting  what  the  heads  will  be  or 
what  exact  lines  I  shall  follow. 

I  do  not  mean  that  I  start  without  knowing 
at  all  what  I  shall  say.  No!  I  have  read 
somewhere  that  that  is  the  ideal  way  to  write 
a  love  letter,  but  it  certainly  is  not  the  best  way 
to  write  a  sermon.  You  must  have  some  idea 
of  what  you  want  to  say,  and  what  you  are  to 
aim  at.  But  with  myself  it  is  often  a  bit  hazy 
at  first  and  only  clears  itself  as  I  go  on,  like  the 
developing  of  a  photographic  plate.  I  some- 
times make  my  sermon  as  an  artist  makes  his 
picture.  I  fasten  on  a  drawing  board  a  large 
sheet  of  paper,  the  larger  the  better,  usually 
the  large  white  tea  paper,  which  I  can  buy  in 
the  grocers'  shops.  First,  perhaps,  I  jot  down 
provisionally  the  headings  that  occur  to  me. 

no 


Preparing  the  Sermon 

Only  provisionally,  they  will  probably  alter  as  I 
go  on.  Then,  with  my  big  sheet  of  paper  before 
me,  I  get  my  head  into  my  hands  and  force 
myself  to  think  hard  for  an  hour  or  so.  Some- 
times a  good  deal  comes  of  this,  sometimes  very 
little:  generally  what  comes  is  most  fragmen- 
tary and  disorderly — a  decision  as  to  the  way 
of  concluding  and  enforcing  my  point,  a 
thought  of  certain  Scriptural  passages  that  bear 
on  it,  a  choice  of  one  for  my  text,  a  memory  of 
thoughts  already  stored  in  my  mind  or  experi- 
ences in  my  own  life,  or  of  some  incidents  in 
the  parish,  a  recollection  of  some  event  in  his- 
tory or  story  that  I  have  read.  Hopes,  aspira- 
tions, enthusiasms,  desires,  thoughts  of  many 
kinds,  that  come  flashing  themselves  before  me 
in  that  mysterious  way,  as  if  they  were  living 
things  coming  on  me  at  my  call  from  some- 
where outside  me — suitable  thoughts  and  un- 
suitable— coming  slowly  and  laboriously  or 
coming  rubhingly  and  impetuously,  according 
to  the  mood  that  is  on  me  at  the  time.  From 
these  I  choose  rapidly  and  jot  down  instantly, 
in  any  order,  all  over  my  large  white  sheet. 
Then  I  take  down  my  interleaved  Bible  and 
look  up  my  text  and  the  Scripture  passages  that 
are  similar  to  it,  to  see  if  on  the  opposite  blank 

III 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon 

page  I  have  noted  down  any  illustrations,  or 
sermons,  or  references  of  any  kind.  These  I 
read  up  carefully;  then  I  get  my  common- 
place book  and  see  if  under  any  of  its  headings 
there  is  anything  to  help  me.  Then  I  stop  for 
the  day,  with  a  tired  head  and  a  hot  flushed 
face ;  I  have  done  between  two  and  three  hours, 
it  is  all  I  am  able  for.  But  the  work  of  this 
first  morning  tells.  It  is  the  foundation.  It  is 
the  collecting  of  germ  thoughts,  which  curi- 
ously grow  and  grow,  and  weave  garments  for 
themselves  out  of  my  sick  visit  and  my  school 
teaching,  and  my  letters  and  my  odd  reading, 
and  the  conversation  of  the  people  during  my 
visiting.  I  talk  to  people  about  it  if  they  will 
let  me.  You  see  I  have  made  the  subject  of 
that  sermon  my  central  thought  for  the  week, 
and  the  mind  in  such  cases  has  a  curious  trick 
of  grouping  everything  round  that  centre  and 
making  them  adapt  themselves  to  it. 

What  I  have  described  as  my  first  morning  is 
an  exceptionally  good  one.  Very  often  I  leave 
my  study  disappointed  and  worried.  My  mind 
was  barren,  my  feelings  were  dead  and  cold. 
All  I  could  do  was  to  read  up  what  others  had 
said  on  the  subject,  especially  any  published 
sermons  that  I  had  bearing  in  any  way  on  it. 

112 


Preparing  the  Sermon 

But  even  that  was  something.  These  thoughts 
of  others,  though  cold  and  uninspiring  as  being 
outside  of  myself,  yet  kept  the  subject  before 
me  and  made  my  mind  begin  to  work. 

Next  day  I  try  again,  perhaps  not  nearly  so 
well.  And  the  odd  disconnected  jottings  on 
my  paper  begin  to  sort  themselves  out.  I  see 
this  thought  connects  itself  with  that  one,  and 
both  will  come  in  best  in  the  middle  of  my 
sermon.  I  mark  them  both  G.  Here  are  a  set 
of  thoughts  and  an  illustration  that  will  come 
in  best  in  the  beginning;  I  write  a  letter  A 
beside  each,  and  so  on.  Then  I  tear  up  my 
sheet  and  substitute  a  new  one.  This  is  the 
canvas  for  my  picture.  On  this  new  sheet  I 
write  out  these  jottings,  all  grouped  together 
in  their  right  connection,  and  I  begin  to  see 
now  how  my  sermon  will  run,  and  again  I  get 
my  head  into  my  hands  and  force  my  mind  to 
work  and  brood  over  the  whole.  If  I  have  suc- 
ceeded, the  sermon  is  a  stage  further  on,  and 
the  stray  thoughts  of  the  rest  of  the  day  touch 
it  a  little  more.  Here  I  add  a  suggestion  which 
means  a  good  deal  to  myself.  Think  with  your 
pen.  Instead  of  working  out  a  thought  fully 
in  my  mind  I  take  my  pen  and  keep  writing  as  I 
think.     At  first  it  is  vague,  stupid  wording. 

113 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon 

But  that  pen  clears  and  excites  thought  in  a 
curious  way.  And  sometimes  in  ten  minutes  I 
am  writing  freely  and  soon  one  section  of  my 
sermon  is  done. 

Now  it  is  time  to  write  out  the  sermon.  This 
one  should  do  in  any  case,  whether  it  is  to  be 
written  or  extempore.  In  the  next  lecture  I 
shall  discuss  that  question  of  extempore  or 
written  sermons.  But  I  must  insist  here  that 
extempore  preaching,  if  it  is  to  be  real,  honest 
preaching,  must  take  as  much  time  and  trouble 
— probably  much  more  time  and  trouble — than 
the  written  sermon.  It  should,  in  most  cases, 
be,  at  least,  roughly  written  out  to  clear  your 
thoughts.  For  extempore  delivery  you  do  not 
need  to  trouble  about  the  language  and  the 
balance  of  your  sentences.  But  I  think  you 
ought  to  write  it  out  fully,  or  nearly  so,  at 
least  for  many  years  to  come. 

In  writing  out  I  used  to  begin  at  the  begin- 
ning, which  seems  to  be  the  right  and  logical 
way.  I  don't  now.  I  have  found  by  experience 
that  I  wasted  too  much  time  on  the  introduc- 
tion, and  found  myself  tired  and  cramped  for 
room  before  I  reached  the  end.    I  have  found, 

114 


Preparing  the  Sermon 

too,  that  the  part  which  I  felt  deeply  yesterday, 
I  feel  less  to-day.  So  now,  instead  of  a  nicely 
sewed  manuscript  sermon  begun  on  the  first 
page  and  finished  on  the  last,  I  write  on  sepa- 
rate loose  sheets. 

I  write  straight  off  just  whatever  strikes  me 
most — perhaps  the  end,  perhaps  the  middle, 
perhaps  some  striking  story  or  illustration. 
My  two  rules  are — (i)  Write  at  once  what- 
ever is  hottest  and  most  vivid  in  my  mind, 
whatever  can  rouse  my  feelings  most  at  the 
time;  (2)  Be  much  more  careful  about  the  end 
than  about  the  beginning.  Don't  imagine  from 
this  that  the  introduction  is  unimportant.  It  is 
very  important.  A  good,  striking  beginning 
will  catch  the  attention  of  the  people,  and,  if 
you  are  wise  and  careful  in  the  rest  of  the  ser- 
mon, may  enable  you  to  hold  them  to  the  end. 
It  is  very  important.  But  the  ending  is  of  vital 
importance.  Lead  up  to  it.  Make  it  the 
strongest,  most  incisive  part  of  your  sermon. 

When  I  began  preaching  I  used  not  to  an- 
nounce the  heads  or  divisions  of  my  sermon. 
It  seemed  to  me  stiff  and  formal  and  old- 
fashioned.  And,  of  course,  like  all  young 
young  preachers,  I  must  be  original.  I  have 
changed  my  mind  about  that,  as  about  many 

115 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon 

other  thing's.  I  do  not  formally  announce  my 
divisions,  but  I  take  great  pains  to  let  the 
audience  know  them.  You  must  remember  that 
a  preached  sermon  is  not  like  a  printed  one, 
where  the  reader  can  see  the  divisions  and 
paragraphs,  and  where  he  can  look  back  to  the 
beginning  of  a  passage  for  the  connection.  If 
the  audience  are  not  helped  in  some  way  to 
guess  at  the  coming  line  of  thought,  they  get 
confused  very  soon,  and  you  lose  their  atten- 
tion. 

So  much  do  I  feel  this  that  I  now  usually 
begin,  after  announcing  my  text,  by  saying — 
The  subject  of  my  sermon  to-day  will  be,  etc. 
Then,  when  I  come  to  each  separate  division  of 
my  thought,  I  indicate  it  clearly  by  a  deliberate 
pause,  or  by  summing  up  into  a  sentence  the 
previous  thought.  I  somehow  or  other  try  to 
put  the  people  into  the  position  of  a  man  who 
had  the  sermon  and  its  headings  before  him 
I  only  want  to  give  you  the  hint.  Try  to  put 
them  in  the  position  of  the  reader  of  the  manu- 
script. 

§6 

There  are  many  more  things  to  be  said  about 
preparation,  which  you  must  learn  for  your- 

ii6 


Preparing  the  Sermon 

selves.     Each  man  must  learn  what  is  most 
fitting  for  himself. 

But  there  is  one  thing  that  I  must  say  in 
conclusion,  since  it  is  true  for  us  all.  Your 
success  in  preparing  a  helpful  and  interesting 
sermon  depends  largely  on  your  power  of  think- 
ing about  your  audience  and  putting  yourself 
in  their  place.  You  must  first  have  learned  a 
good  deal  about  them  and  the  lives  they  live — 
that  is  one  great  gain  of  regular  visiting — and 
then  before  you  write  your  sermon  call  them 
up  in  imagination  before  you,  as  they  will  be 
on  Sunday  when  you  are  preaching.  Think 
about  that  man  with  the  sceptical  temperament, 
who  sits  in  the  front  pew.  He  is  not  a  bad 
fellow,  and  does  not  want  to  find  you  wrong, 
but  he  will  certainly  criticise  and  sift  every 
weak  statement.  Think  of  the  tempted  and  the 
openly  careless  people.  Think  of  the  poor  sor- 
rowful hearts  that  so  greatly  want  comfort, 
and  the  earnest  strugglers  who  want  to  be 
heartened  up,  and  the  loving  faithful  old  Chris- 
tians, who  know  far  more  about  God  and  His 
love  and  the  daily  communion  with  Him  than 
you  do,  and  yet  who  listen  so  humbly  that  you 
grow  ashamed  to  be  preaching  to  them.  I  shall 
speak  to  you  afterwards  of  the  need  of  doing 

117 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon 

this  fully  when  you  stand  in  the  pulpit  and 
look  into  their  faces  before  the  sermon  and  try 
to  realise  what  a  world  of  thought  and  will 
and  feeling  lies  behind  each  face.  Butypu 
must  first  think  about  them  in  your  study,  if 
the  sermon  is  really  to  lay  hold  of  them.  I 
frequently  spend  part  of  my  preparation  time 
in  the  pulpit  in  the  empty  church  with  my  mind 
peopling  the  pews  as  I  go  on. 

Now  the  sermon  is  written.  Are  you  done? 
If  it  be  at  all  like  mine  you  certainly  are  not 
done.^  The  first  thing  that  I  usually  find  is 
that  I  have  said  too  much  and  over-written  the 
number  of  pages  that  should  make  a  twenty 
minutes'  sermon.  The  people  will  often  listen 
with  interest  to  a  sermon  of  twenty-five  or 
thirty  minutes.  But  it  is  not  safe  to  risk  it. 
It  needs  to  be  a  very  interesting  one,  and  to 
have  gripped  them  well.  It  is  much  better  to 
let  them  feel  that  they  could  have  listened  to 
you  longer.     I  always  find  my  sermon  is  too 

*  In  revising  the  proofs  for  press  the  writer  notices  on 
certain  pages  more  mention  of  himself  and  his  methods 
than  seems  to  him  quite  desirable  in  the  publicity  of  print 
It  would  be  difficult  now  to  recast  those  pages.  Will  the 
reader  kindly  note  that  these  lectures  were  not  intended 
for  publication,  and  that  in  the  privacy  of  a  lecture  hall 
one  might  find  it  desirable,  in  a  subject  such  as  this,  to 
enforce  his  teaching  by  frequen,t  reference  to  his  own 
methods  and  experience. 

ii8 


Preparing  the  Sermon 

long.  I  always  have  to  cut  it  down  ruthlessly ; 
reduce  and  condense  and  cut  out  altogether 
part  of  what  I  have  said.  It  vexes  me,  but  I 
think  it  is  good  for  me,  and  probably  the  ser- 
mon is  the  stronger  and  more  vigorous  for  it. 
Every  sentence  that  is  not  accomplishing  some- 
thing must  go. 

Then  you  must  go  over  it  again  and  ask, 
Have  I  put  my  main  points  really  well?  Are 
they  quite  distinct?  Don't  hesitate,  if  neces- 
sary, to  repeat  them  again  and  again,  but  be 
sure  that  they  are  clear  and  that  they  get  into 
the  people's  minds. 

Also  ask,  is  the  sermon  interesting?  Does  it 
begin  well  ?  Does  it  end  well  ?  Are  there  any 
dull  pages  in  it?  Have  I  done  my  best  to  re- 
lieve the  attention  repeatedly  by  introducing  an 
illustration,  or  by  keeping  every  point  clear  and 
lucid?  Test  your  sermon  by  Cicero's  famous 
rules  that  I  have  already  mentioned — (i) 
Placere;  (2)  Docere;  (3)  Movere. 

(i)  Placere — To  please  and  interest  the 
audience.    Have  I  interested  my  audience? 

(2)  Docere — To  do  this  in  order  to  teach 
them.  Have  I  taught?  Have  I  given  definite 
instruction — not  mere  empty  exhorting  and  de- 


claiming ? 


119 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon 

(3)  Movere — To  do  the  teaching  in  order  to 
move  their  hearts.  Is  my  sermon  calculated  to 
do  that  ?  Would  it  move  me  if  I  heard  another 
man  preach  it?  What  did  I  v^ant  to  move 
them  to?  To  do  something?  or  to  feel  some- 
thing? or  both?  Have  I  succeeded?  Could  I 
do  it  better? 

There  is  more  to  be  said,  but  it  will  come  in 
better  in  the  next  lecture  on  'The  Preaching 
of  the  SermonJ' 


120 


Lecture  VI 
PREACHING  THE  SERMON 


Lecture  VI 
PREACHING  THE  SERMON 

§1 

We  close  now  this  brief  course  of  lectures.  I 
have  to  speak  to  you  about  "Preaching  the 
Sermon."  And  I  think  this  is,  perhaps,  the 
best  place  to  discuss  the  very  obvious  question. 
Should  you  aim  at  preaching  written  or  ex- 
tempore sermons? 

It  ought  to  go  without  saying  that  you  must 
certainly  write  out  what  you  mean  to  say  for 
your  first  few  years  at  any  rate  if  you  are  to 
escape  the  fluent  talking  of  twaddle  that  dis- 
credits so  many  of  our  pulpits.  But  after  the 
first  few  years,  should  your  sermon  be  written 
or  extempore? 

I  cannot  answer  the  question  for  any  of  you. 
No  man  can  answer  it  for  you :  it  depends  en- 
tirely on  yourself.  There  are,  I  think,  some 
men  who  should  never  attempt  to  preach  ex- 
tempore.   There  are  many  men,  on  the  other 

123 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon 

hand,  who  quite  spoil  the  effect  of  their  preach- 
ing by  writing,  and  reading  from  a  manuscript ; 
and  there  are  others,  and  I  think  these  the 
greatest  number,  who,  by  sometimes  preaching 
extempore,  would  increase  their  power  of  clear 
and  vigorous  writing,  and  who,  by  sometimes 
carefully  writing  out  their  sermons,  would  in- 
crease the  accuracy  of  their  extempore  speak- 
ing. I  do  not  see  at  all  why  any  man  should 
confine  himself  to  either  method  exclusively. 
But  I  do  not  see,  either,  why  any  man  should 
adopt  the  method  that  does  not  suit  him;  why 
he  should  be  a  dull  reader  of  manuscript  if  he 
has  the  power  of  quick,  alert,  vigorous  speech ; 
or  why  he  should  be  a  stupid  extempore  ranter 
of  commonplaces,  when  God,  who  has  denied 
him  the  alert  nimbleness  of  thought,  has  given 
him  the  ability  to  write  careful,  well-thought- 
out  sermons.  There  is  no  particular  virtue  in 
either  manuscript  or  extempore.  Preach  in  the 
way  you  can  do  best ;  only  be  quite  sure  that  it 
is  because  you  can  do  it  best  that  way,  not 
because  it  is  easier  and  lazier  to  do  it  that  way. 
Each  method  has  its  own  advantages  and 
defects. 


124 


Preaching  the  Sermon 

§2 

There  is  a  great  deal  to  say  in  favour  of 
extempore  preaching".  In  fact,  to  the  man  who 
is  capable  of  doing  it  really  well  there  is  no 
question  but  that  it  is  the  better  way.  But, 
then,  it  should  be  the  true  sort  of  extempore 
preaching.  It  should  require,  if  anything, 
harder  work  and  more  careful  study  than  the 
written  sermon.  Extempore  speaking  should 
never  mean  speaking  without  careful  prepara- 
tion; it  should  never  mean  that  the  preacher 
does  not  know  beforehand  what  he  is  going  to 
say.  It  should  mean  that  he  knows  right  well 
what  he  is  going  to  say,  but  does  not  know 
exactly  in  what  words  he  will  say  it. 

Rightly  understood,  it  is  a  real,  direct  speak- 
ing by  man  to  men.  The  personality  of  the 
preacher  is  not  obscured  by  the  intervention  of 
a  manuscript.  I  do  not  want  to  overestimate 
its  importance.  There  is  a  tendency  to  do  this 
amongst  the  less  thoughtful  in  our  congrega- 
tions. They  attach  the  idea  of  piety  and  faith 
and  dependence  on  God  to  extempore  preaching 
as  contrasted  with  written  sermons.  I  remem- 
ber, in  my  early  ministry,  a  dear  old  lady  friend 
who  was  looking  forward  to  the  day  when  I 

125 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon 

should  have  the  courage  and  faith  to  fling  aside 
my  manuscript  and  trust  myself  fully  on  the 
promises  of  Christ — ''Settle  it  therefore  in 
your  hearts  not  to  meditate  before  what  ye  shall 
answer,  for  I  will  give  you  a  mouth  and  wis- 
dom." It  was  not  easy  to  explain  to  her  that 
that  promise  was  not  made  to  a  lazy  young 
preacher  to  save  him  preparation"  of  his  sermon, 
but  to  men  in  danger  of  their  lives  when  they 
should  be  dragged  before  councils  for  His  sake. 
I  hope  you  will  keep  this  fact  clearly  in  mind 
when  you  are  tempted  to  be  lazy  in  your  prep- 
aration. Do  not  let  any  one  persuade  you  that 
there  is  a  word  of  promise  for  any  man  who 
wants  to  attain  results  without  working  for 
them.  But  though  I  know  that  part  of  the 
preference  for  extempore  preaching  arises 
from  false  notions  of  the  meaning  of  Scripture, 
yet  I  know,  too,  that  is  not  the  whole  reason 
of  it.  The  people  feel  that  it  is  more  direct 
speaking  to  them.  There  is  a  quickness  and 
liveliness  and  spontaneous  flow  of  feeling  that 
they  usually  miss  in  the  read  manuscript  ser- 
mon. And  to  the  speaker  himself  there  is  a 
delight  and  excitement  in  the  extempore  dis- 
course that  is  very  much  missing  in  the  other. 
I  say  all  this,  though  I  seldom  preach  really 
126 


Preadung  the  Sermon 

extempore  myself.  I  wish  I  could  do  it,  and  do 
it  well.  I  know  it  would  bring  more  effective- 
ness, and  I  know  it  would  bring  more  enjoy- 
ment to  myself  in  preaching.  But  I  have 
thought  the  matter  carefully  out  for  many 
years,  and  I  feel  that  I  must  recognise  my 
limitations.  I  am  not  easy  and  self-possessed 
enough  to  "let  myself  go,"  without  risk  of  say- 
ing the  wrong  thing.  When  I  grow  intensely 
interested  in  my  subject,  and  the  thoughts  are 
coming  faster  than  I  can  overtake  them,  I  find 
I  lack  the  nimbleness  and  alertness  of  brain  to 
choose  my  words  quickly  and  correctly.  I  have 
repeatedly  regretted  my  extempore  sermon. 

I  still  say  I  wish  I  could  preach  extempore. 
I  still  say  to  you,  "preach  extempore  if  you 
really  can  do  it  best."  But  I  warn  you  that 
there  are  dangers  connected  with  so  doing,  and 
you  need  to  be  a  high  type  of  man,  morally  as 
well  as  intellectually,  to  avoid  those  dangers. 
So  many  extempore  preachers  that  I  know  seem 
to  me  to  have  grown  very  lazy.  They  seem  to 
content  themselves  with  sketching  out  the  line 
of  thought,  the  bare  headings  of  the  sermons, 
and  trust  to  the  excitement  of  the  preaching 
and  the  inspiration  that  comes  from  a  listening 
crowd  to  supply  the  words.    I  know  a  few  ex- 

127 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon 

tempore  preachers  whose  thought  is  as  clear 
and  deliberate  and  logically  put  as  if  every  word 
of  it  were  written.  I  feel  they  must  have 
worked  very  hard  at  their  preparation.  But  I 
fear  many  of  the  extempore  preachers  that  I 
know  are  poor  preachers,  and  show  much  trace 
of  habits  of  loose,  inexact  thought  and  lazy 
and  hurried  preparation.  Such  preaching  is 
very  easy  and  very  useless.  Archbishop 
Whately  used  to  say  it  reminded  him  of  Bot- 
tom's answer  in  the  play  when  Snug,  the 
joiner,  asked  if  the  lion's  part  was  yet  written 
— ''No,  it  can  be  done  extempore,  for  it  is  only 
roaring." 

In  a  word,  you  will  be  a  much  better  and 
more  effective  preacher  if  you  can  preach  well 
extempore,  and  if  you  can  trust  yourself,  by 
God's  grace,  to  surmount  the  temptation  to  lazi- 
ness in  preparing.  But  you  must  recognise 
that  there  are  grave  dangers  to  be  guarded 
against. 

§3 

On  the  other  hand,  the  written  sermon  has 
also  its  advantages  and  disadvantages.  It  does 
much  to  secure  deliberate  thinking,  steady  in- 
dustry, exact  careful  expression  of  thought. 

128 


Preaching  the  Sermon 

It  keeps  you  from  running-  off  into  fluent  ver- 
bosity and  well-sounding  nothings  which  the 
presence  of  an  audience  sometimes  induces.  It 
has  two  other  advantages  which  I  have  seldom 
heard  spoken  of.  One  is  what  I  greatly  feel 
myself,  the  freedom  from  strain  and  anxiety 
all  through  the  previous  service  in  church. 
When  I  have  to  speak  without  a  written  sermon 
I  suffer  a  good  deal  beforehand.  I  try  not  to 
be  irreverent,  and  not  to  let  my  thoughts 
through  the  prayers  run  on  to  the  sermon.  But 
I  seldom  succeed,  and,  in  any  case,  it  is  a  great 
strain  on  me.  I  dare  say  it  is  with  me  a  matter 
of  temperament,  and  of  being  unaccustomed  to 
much  extempore  speaking.  But  I  think  most 
men  would  feel  the  strain  in  some  degree. 

And  the  other  advantage  I  refer  to  is  that  in 
holiday  time,  or  in  times  of  severe  pressure  of 
other  work,  you  have  a  carefully  written  old 
sermon  to  fall  back  upon.  I  certainly  do  not 
want  to  encourage  any  laziness  in  preachers. 
I  have  no  love  for  old  sermons ;  they  never  have 
the  freshness  and  spontaneity  that  they  had  at 
first ;  but  in  the  strain  of  a  busy  life  they  are  at 
times  a  great  help  and  rest.  I  think  there  is  a 
great  deal  of  silly  thought  and  talk  in  the  ob- 
jection to  preaching  old  sermons.    A  preacher 

129 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon 

has  written  some  sermons  that  have  cost  him 
weeks  of  thinking,  and  on  subjects  that  he 
thinks  very  much  need  to  be  preached  on.  He 
has  expressed  himself  better  than  he  could  do 
if  he  were  to  try  it  again.  Why  on  earth  he 
should  not  repeat  that  sermon  and  throw  his 
whole  heart  into  it  I  cannot  see.  Why  he 
should  be  ashamed  to  confess  that  he  had 
preached  it  before  I  cannot  see  either.  Of 
course,  I  see  the  danger  here — the  same  temp- 
tation to  laziness  that  I  pointed  out  in  the  ex- 
tempore sermon.  But  the  abuse  of  a  practice 
does  not  forbid  the  legitimate  use  of  it.  And, 
certainly,  in  the  holiday  times,  or  in  the  pres- 
sure of  new  and  unaccustomed  work,  no  man 
need  hesitate  to  lay  his  old  sermon  down  before 
God  and  beseech  His  blessing  on  it  as  if  it  were 
a  new  one. 

These  are  the  advantages  of  the  written  ser- 
mon. But,  alas !  they  are  frequently  more  than 
balanced  by  its  disadvantages.  In  six  cases  out 
of  ten  the  written  sermon  stands  as  a  screen 
between  the  souls  of  the  preacher  and  people. 
So  many  men  read  their  written  sermons — 
literally  read  them  as  if  they  were  the  work  of 
some  one  else ;  as  if  their  own  personality  were 
not  in  them  at  all.    It  is  pitiful  to  see  a  clergy- 

130 


Preaching  the  Sermon 

man  with  his  head  down  and  his  eyes  on  the 
paper  laboriously  reading  his  sermon  as  if  he 
had  never  taken  in  the  thoughts  and  made  them 
his  own.  That  is  not  preaching.  And  unless 
you  are  afflicted  with  some  constitutional  in- 
firmity or  awkwardness  I  do  not  think  there  is 
any  excuse  for  such  preaching  as  that.. 

§4 

But  I  do  not  think  you  need  be  either  a  fluent 
ranter  or  a  stupid  reader.  I  think  it  is  quite 
possible  to  gain  all  the  advantages  of  the  writ- 
ten sermon  with  only  a  very  small  part  of  its 
disadvantages.  Some  of  our  greatest  preach- 
ers— such  men  as  Liddon  and  Guthrie — have 
done  so.  It  depends  on  how  the  sermon  is  pre- 
pared and  how  the  sermon  is  preached.  If  in 
preparing  your  written  sermon  you  have  really 
put  yourself  into  it,  thought  its  thoughts,  felt 
its  feelings,  that  will  show  in  the  delivery  of  it. 
If  you  have  prepared  it  with  the  thought  of  the 
people  vividly  in  your  mind,  it  can  become 
almost  like  an  extempore  sermon.  Some  men 
can  so  write  and  so  think  themselves  into  the 
Sunday  position  that  in  the  quiet  study  they 
feel  their  faces  flushing  with  the  excitement  of 

131 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon 

it.  When  that  happens  you  may  be  sure  the 
sermon  will  not  seem  like  a  written  one  on 
Sunday. 

But  that  is  not  enoug-h.  If  you  are  only 
capable  of  preaching  written  sermons  you  must 
try  all  you  can  to  do  away  with  the  defects  of 
writing.  Make  yourself  familiar  with  the 
manuscript,  mark  its  headings  and  important 
passages  with  coloured  pencil  so  that  you  shall 
be  able  when  preaching  to  look  at  the  people. 
Then  go  into  the  pulpit  on  Saturday  night  in 
the  empty  church  and  try  to  preach  your  ser- 
mon, peopling  the  pews  in  your  imagination. 
Learn  to  express  your  thought  a  little  differ- 
ently. Break  up  your  carefully  composed  sen- 
tences into  shorter  and  rougher  ones  if  that  is 
more  like  your  natural  style  in  speaking  to  the 
people.  You  need  not  rewrite  the  sentences, 
simply  think  whether  you  can  express  your 
thought  more  easily  and  naturally.  If  you  will 
only  take  trouble  enough,  I  can  assure  you  that 
your  written  sermon  will  gain  much  of  the 
advantages  of  extempore  speaking,  and  the  peo- 
ple will  hardly  notice  whether  you  have  a  manu- 
script at  all.  This  is  quite  a  different  thing 
from  memorizing  your  sermon  and  saying  it 

132 


Preaching  the  Sermon 

off  by  heart,  which  I  think  tends  to  unreality 
and  is  a  custom  to  be  deprecated. 

§5 

Now  you  are  in  the  pulpit  on  Sunday,  facing 
your  people.  If  you  have  not  done  your  best 
for  them  you  should  face  them  with  trouble 
and  shame.  But  if  you  have  done  your  best 
lift  up  your  heart  to  God  and  fear  not  the  face 
of  men.  You  are  an  ambassador  for  God.  If 
you  have  anything  worth  while  saying  say  it 
for  them  and  forget  all  about  yourself.  In 
your  layman  days  you  have  heard  so  much 
criticism  and  condemnation  of  preachers — 
more  shame  for  the  preachers  who  have  de- 
served it — that  you  are  probably  afraid  of  the 
same  fate  yourself,  and  it  makes  you  nervous. 
Do  not  be  afraid.  Do  not  be  nervous.  All  the 
best  of  your  people  will  instinctively  find  out  if 
you  have  any  help  for  them,  and  even  if  you 
have  not  much,  still  they  will  find  out  that  you 
wanted  to  help.  And  the  kindliest  critics  in 
the  world  are  the  good,  earnest  Christians  who 
believe  that  their  pastor  is  in  earnest  and  de- 
sirous to  help  however  stupid  he  may  be. 

As  for  the  mere  "critical  layman"  in  the  pew 

133 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon 

who  is  always  criticising  and  "never  can  under- 
stand why  clergy  are  so  incompetent,"  do  not 
trouble  too  much  about  him.  He  is  probably 
not  such  a  very  brilliant  person  himself.  He  is 
always  expecting  far  more  than  he  has  any 
right  to  expect.  "Why  do  we  get  so  many 
stupid  clergy?"  one  of  these  gentlemen  once 
asked  of  Archbishop  Temple.  "Because,  Sir, 
we  have  to  take  them  out  of  the  laity,"  was  the 
prompt  retort.  That  is  so.  We  clergy  are,  at 
least,  quite  average  specimens  of  the  layman 
order  from  which  we  come.  Try  your  critic  at 
making  a  speech.  Try  even  a  trained  speaker 
or  writer.  Compare  the  average  lawyer  or 
journalist  with  the  average  preacher.  The  ad- 
vantage is  not  by  any  means,  I  think,  on  the 
layman's  side. 

Fear  not  the  face  of  men,  I  say.  But  fear 
the  face  of  man.  Study  to  acquire  a  deep  rev- 
erence for  your  congregation.  No  man  ever 
became  a  great  preacher  who  did  not  view  with 
reverence  and  awe  the  mysterious  immortal 
beings  gathered  before  him — each  one  an  "I," 
an  "ego,"  a  "self,"  hiding  behind  their  faces  as 
behind  a  mask,  looking  out  at  him  through  the 
windows  of  their  eyes,  receiving  his  thoughts 
through  the  portals  of  their  ears — a  living 

134 


Preaching  the  Sermon 

spiritual  being,  an  heir  of  the  eternities  who  is 
cased  up  in  these  changing  bodies,  who  has 
survived  perhaps  half  a  dozen  bodies  already, 
and  who  is  destined  to  survive  everything  in 
the  Universe  except  God  alone.  It  is  a  tre- 
mendous thing  to  realise  what  beings,  what 
destinies  you  have  to  deal  with  as  you  stand  in 
that  pulpit,  speaking  your  poor  stammering 
words  in  the  name  of  the  Lord.  The  more  you 
get  that  deep  reverence  for  the  immortal  souls 
before  you,  the  more  will  you  be  free  from  all 
petty  fears  of  critics  or  petty  thoughts  about 
your  own  eloquence  or  cleverness,  and  the 
more,  too,  will  you  have  the  courage  to  resist 
their  prejudices  and  bigotries  when  it  is  neces- 
sary, and  to  preach  them  what  is  the  need  of 
these  immortal  souls,  the  whole  wide  counsel  of 
God. 

§6 

In  your  reverence  for  them  realise  that  at 
bottom  there  is  the  better  nature  in  every  one 
of  them,  capable  of  responding  to  your  highest 
appeals.  I  feel  that  strongly.  Believe  in  your 
people.  They  may  be  careless,  sinful,  hostile  to 
certain  views  of  religion  that  do  not  appeal  to 
them,  but  at  bottom,  they  do  not  want  to  be 

135 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon 

bad.  They  do  want  to  be  helped.  The  very 
worst  has  his  better  moments  of  dissatisfaction 
and  vague  desire  for  higher  things. 

I  do  not  make  Hght  of  the  evil  in  human 
nature,  but  I  think  there  is  a  good  deal  of 
exaggeration  and  a  good  deal  of  cant  in  the 
talk  about  men's  hostility  to  Christ.  I  do  not 
believe  that  any  men  are  really  hostile  to  Christ. 
They  may  be  hostile  to  your  way  or  my  way  of 
presenting  Christ.  They  may  have  grown  so 
hardened  and  careless  that  Christ  does  not  get 
a  fair  chance  with  them.  But  I  think  it  is  true 
of  almost  every  one  of  the  people  who  come  to 
your  church  on  Sunday,  that  they  do  really 
care  to  be  good,  though  they  may  not  take 
much  trouble  about  it ;  that  if  Christ  were  more 
truly  lifted  up  He  would  draw  them  more  surely 
unto  Him. 

Oh,  I  do  believe  that  one  great  secret  of  suc- 
cessful preaching  is  to  believe  in  the  better 
nature  of  those  you  are  addressing.  Believe 
that  they  will  listen  if  you  make  it  worth  their 
while  to  listen.  Believe  that  every  one  of  them 
has  a  soft  spot  in  his  heart  if  you  can  only  find 
it.  Believe  that  in  all  your  enthusiasm  for  the 
high,  unselfish  life  you  have  the  sympathy  of 
almost  every  one  of  them. 

136 


Preaching  the  Sermon 

I  think  that  was,  humanly  speaking,  the 
secret  of  our  Lord's  power  with  the  poor  pub- 
licans and  sinners  of  Jerusalem.  He  thought 
the  best  of  them,  He  looked  for  the  best  in 
them,  He  hoped  the  best  of  them,  and  there- 
fore, the  best  in  them  responded  to  Him.  I 
think  that  will  be  a  great  source  of  power  with 
you,  too.  It  is  not  scolding  and  faultfinding 
that  will  help  people.  What  they  want  is  to  be 
encouraged,  to  be  heartened  up,  to  be  made  to 
realise  how  much  of  God's  grace  is  given  to  the 
very  worst  of  them. 

§7 

Now  your  preaching  will  be  much  influenced 
by  your  realising  these  things  when  you  stand 
in  the  pulpit.  Get  into  the  pulpit  in  time  to 
realise  it,  not  just  in  the  last  verse  of  the  hymn. 
Get  time  to  stand  for  a  few  minutes  looking 
into  the  faces  of  the  people  and  thinking  about 
them  and  about  the  God  in  whose  presence  you 
and  they  are. 

I  advise  you  to  let  your  effort  at  realising 
your  position  run  like  this : — 

(i)  I  am  Christ's  appointed  messenger  to 
this  people  to-day.    He  is  present  looking  and 

137 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon 

listening.  He  is  deeply  solicitous  that  these 
poor  strugglers  should  be  helped  by  me,  un- 
worthy though  I  am.  He  has  given  me  the 
supreme  privilege  and  responsibility  of  being 
His  messenger  to  them.  He  will  help  me.  He 
will  not  be  hard  on  me.  He  will  make  all  al- 
lowance for  me.  But,  oh,  I  must  try  not  to  dis- 
appoint Him. 

Let  that  be  your  first  thought.  It  will  help 
to  sweep  away  all  thought  of  self.  "Am  I 
preaching  well  ?  Am  I  gaining  credit  for  my- 
self ?"  It  will  keep  you  rather  asking,  "Am  I 
saying  anything  likely  to  help  any  human  soul 
before  me?  Am  I  pleasing,  or  am  I  displeasing 
Christ?" 

(2)  And  let  this  be  your  second  thought — 
deep  sympathy  for,  and  desire  to  help,  the  poor 
strugglers  before  you.  Behind  these  upturned 
faces  there  are  hearts  and  feelings  and  sorrows 
and  desires  and  dissatisfactions.  Some  of 
them  have  hard  lives,  some  have  severe  tempta- 
tions, some  have  grown  hard  and  careless  and 
forgetful  of  God.  Try  to  realise  this.  I  think 
you  might  well  get  the  habit  here  of  repeating 
to  yourself  as  you  look  at  them  from  the 
pulpit — 

138 


Preaching  the  Sermon 

"Lord,  some  are  sick  and  some  are  sad, 

And  some  have  never  loved  Thee  well, 
And  some  have  lost  the  love  they  had, 

And  some  have  found  the  world  in  vain. 
Yet  from  the  world  they  break  not  free, 

And  some  have  friends  who  give  them  pain. 
Yet  have  not  sought  a  friend  in  Thee, 

And  none,  O  Lord,  have  perfect  rest." 

Get  the  habit  of  repeating-  these  words  as  you 
look  slowly  into  the  faces  of  the  people  before 
you  preach.  It  will  rouse  your  sympathy  with 
them.  It  will  influence  the  whole  tone  of  your 
sermon. 

§8 

And  because  the  people  are  so  important  and 
so  well  worthy  of  your  best,  surely  you  will  not 
try  to  preach  to  them  "clever  sermons,"  or 
''eloquent  sermons."  I  trust  your  sermons  will 
often  be  both  clever  and  eloquent.  But  I  be- 
seech you  do  not  aim  at  making  them  so.  Your 
business  is  simply  to  do  your  level  best  to  get 
your  message  into  the  people's  heads  and 
hearts.  Your  business  is  to  preach  Christ  and 
to  keep  yourself  and  your  cleverness  and  elo- 
quence in  the  background.  There  is  a  well 
known  story  of  an  old  painter  who  had  finished 
a  picture  of  the  Last  Supper,  and  asked  a  com- 

139 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon 

rade  painter  for  his  criticism.  "That  chalice 
is  simply  perfect,"  said  his  friend.  Immedi- 
ately the  painter  dashed  his  brush  across  it. 
"Then  it  is  a  defect  in  the  picture,"  he  said ;  "it 
is  drawing  attention  from  the  central  figure  of 
the  Christ." 

Watch  that  yourself  never  detracts  attention 
from  your  Lord.  Distrust  your  fine  sentences, 
your  bits  of  eloquence  that  you  are  so  pleased 
with.  They  may  be  all  right,  but  take  care  of 
them.  And  snub  any  man  who  talks  to  you  of 
the  cleverness  and  eloquence  of  your  sermon. 
That  praise  is  insulting.  You  will  get  some 
praise  that  you  may  take  with  a  glad  heart  when 
you  get  it,  and  thank  God  for  it.  You  will  get 
it  none  too  often — when  some  poor  struggler 
tells  you  shyly  during  the  week,  "I  have  been 
trying  to  do  what  you  suggested  last  Sunday," 
or,  "It  has  been  a  bit  easier  to  fight  through 
this  week  because  of  what  you  said  in  your 
sermon."  I  wish  the  people  would  tell  us  that 
a  little  oftener,  for  I  think  we  do  help  them 
oftener  than  we  know.  But  we  seldom  get  the 
encouragement  of  hearing  it. 


140 


Preaching  the  Sermon 

§9 

One  thing  more.  Try  to  acquire  the  power 
of  keeping  in  touch  with  your  audience,  keep- 
ing your  finger  on  their  pulse,  as  it  were,  so 
that  you  will  feel  conscious  when  you  are  inter- 
esting and  when  you  are  boring  them,  and 
when  they  have  had  as  much  of  the  sermon  as 
they  care  to  listen  to.  This  is  a  good  deal  a 
matter  of  temperament  and  sympathy.  If  you 
have  the  orator's  instinct  you  will  feel  this  with- 
out any  trouble.  If  you  have  not,  you  can  at 
least  acquire  it  partially — by  observation. 
There  are  many  preachers  who  feel  instinc- 
tively what  points  are  telling  with  the  audience 
and  what  parts  are  tiring  them.  There  is  also 
a  psychological  moment  when  the  audience,  or 
most  of  them,  have  had  just  enough.  They 
have  not  yet  begun  to  tire,  but  they  will  in  a 
few  moments.  Do  not  let  them  have  those  few 
moments.  Draw  to  a  close  as  quickly  as  you 
can.  End  off  abruptly  if  necessary.  Do  not  let 
them  tire  if  you  can  possibly  help  it.  Use  every 
right  device  to  keep  their  interest  for  the  full 
time  that  you  want  it.  But  do  not  go  on  after 
you  have  lost  it. 

141 


The  Preacher  and  His  Sermon 

This  is  a  hard  task  I  am  setting  you.  Some 
of  you  may  not  be  able  for  it  till  you  have  had 
years  of  experience.  Some  of  you  can  instinc- 
tively do  it  from  the  first.  But  you  must  every 
one  of  you  aim  at  it.  You  must  not  detain 
your  audience  when  their  interest  is  lost.  It 
will  often  vex  and  disappoint  you  if  you  follow 
that  rule.  Never  mind.  It  will  pay  in  the 
long-run.  They  will  come  to  listen  to  you  with 
fresh  interest  next  time.  If  you  have  tired 
them  a  few  times  they  will  expect  to  be  tired 
again,  and  will  either  stay  away  or  give  you 
half  their  attention. 

The  consciousness  of  this,  too,  will  affect 
your  preparation.  You  will  know  that  there  is 
danger  of  losing  their  attention,  and  that  you 
will  have  to  use  all  your  guile  to  put  your  points 
in  the  most  interesting  way.  You  will  write,  or 
otherwise  prepare  with  the  consciousness  upon 
you  that  there  is  little  use  in  preaching  if  the 
people  are  not  listening. 

And  here,  too,  as  I  said  to  you  in  a  previous 
lecture,  if  you  can  have  the  help  of  a  wise, 
judicious,  candid  friend,  use  it  freely.  Ask 
him  to  criticise  you.  Ask  him  what  points  were 
interesting  and  where  you  lost  the  attention,  or 
whether  you  stopped  up  sharply  enough  to 

142 


Preaching  the  Sermon 

escape  doing  so.  It  is  not  easy  to  get  a  friend 
who  can  act  this  part  for  you.  A  man's  wife — 
if  ever  you  get  a  wife — ought  to  be  the  best 
help,  unless  she  is  silly  enough  to  think  her 
husband  is  perfection.  There  is  probably  no 
one  else  in  the  congregation  who  would  be 
more  sensitive  for  you  if  she  is  wise  enough  to 
see  you  are  imperfect  and  need  helping,  and  if 
she  is  enough  in  sympathy  with  your  deep  de- 
sire to  do  your  very  best  to  help  the  people  in 
your  sermon. 

Now  I  have  done.  All  that  I  have  said  may 
be  roughly  summed  up  in  this.  If  you  are  a 
real  man,  if  you  are  faithful  to  your  God,  if 
you  are  honestly  trying  to  do  your  best,  you 
cannot  fail  in  being,  at  any  rate,  a  good  helpful 
preacher. 


THE  END 


143 


Date  Due 


in 


vtVi 


*tf>* 


'V\*<^.a(Z.\'^^r      S  h\s     ser 


.T)'-  ;t.v  h 


\71, 


